In the vegetable patch, rhubarb trumps with its legendary location loyalty of up to 10 years. With good care, the hardy perennial gains in volume with juicy, premium quality stems from year to year. This guide explains in a practical and comprehensible way what contribution pruning makes to the fruity-sour crop yield.

Rhubarb should be twisted out, not cut off

Cutting at your own discretion

The extent to which pruning of rhubarb is actually necessary is a matter of controversy among hobby gardeners. Although the fruit vegetable thrives as a hardy perennial, convincing advantages are not associated with a ground-level pruning. It is therefore subject to your gardening judgment whether you cut a rhubarb plant or not. If you advocate a cut, please follow this strategy:

  • Do not harvest from the end of June
  • After the last harvest, fertilize with compost and let it grow
  • Wait in autumn until all parts of the plant have retracted and died
  • Ideally, twist out the leaves and stems at the base
  • Alternatively, cut the rhubarb plant down to the ground

In regions with harsh winters, it is advisable not to remove the dead shoots until late winter. Until then, the mighty leaves act as a natural winter protection because they lie over the rootstock when they are retracted and mitigate severe frost.

First cut, then drive

Can't wait for the harvest season to begin? Then force the ripening period by forcing your rhubarb plant forward. For this purpose, put a wicker basket or plastic bucket over the first tender shoots. In order for the gardening trick to succeed, dead plant parts from the previous year should be cut off at ground level or turned out.

Remove flower without cutting

In favor of a rich rhubarb harvest, you should not tolerate any blossoming. The perennial invests all its strength in the growth of opulent flowers and myriad seeds. This process takes place at the expense of juicy, sour fruit sticks, so that the harvest quality and quantity are noticeably reduced. How to effectively prevent the unwanted process:

  • Grasp the inflorescence with your fingers at the base of the stem
  • Rotate clockwise and pull at the same time
  • Do not trim the breaking point

Deprived of its flowers, the rhubarb plant diverts its energy into the growth of new stems and leaves.

Unscrew stems that are ready to be harvested

Expert harvesting of ripe rhubarb stalks dispenses with the use of cutting tools. Cutting off the succulent stems with a knife or scissors carries the high risk of rotting, disease and pest infestation. Grasp the mature rod at the base and twist clockwise to remove.

The leaves are also spared from a cut. With simultaneous twisting and pulling, the foliage is separated from the petiole. Due to a high concentration of harmful oxalic acid, the leaves of a rhubarb plant are not suitable for consumption.

tips

The rhubarb harvest traditionally ends on St. John's Day, at the end of June. In the period that follows, the oxalic acid content in the sticks increases. Furthermore, the heavily consuming fruit vegetable needs the remaining time until the end of the season to gather fresh strength for next year's rhubarb season.

Category:

Vegetable garden