If you transplant your high-yielding rhubarb plant after seven years in the bed, this measure acts like a rejuvenating cure. What you should pay attention to in order for the procedure to succeed is revealed in the following lines.

Three arguments for a change of location

Although rhubarb is designed for a lifespan of ten to fifteen years, the heavy feeder leaches the bed soil out prematurely. Experienced hobby gardeners therefore transplant the plant after an average of seven years. This measure has 3 advantages:

  • the soil recovers under a suitable crop rotation
  • implementing also serves to multiply
  • by transplanting, the rhubarb plant undergoes a rejuvenation

Usually, rhubarb has taken on a considerable volume by this stage. Transplanting and propagating therefore go hand in hand for most hobby gardeners.

Careful choice of new location

Transplanting rhubarb requires a certain amount of forethought. After all, the plant will spend several years there and should continue to bring in a rich harvest. At a minimum, the following site conditions should be met:

  • sunny, warm, sheltered position
  • very nutritious, humic soil
  • fresh, moist and well-drained
  • slightly acidic pH between 5 and 6

Under no circumstances should you put rhubarb where it was five years ago. Here the floe has not recovered so early. This circumstance would undoubtedly be at the expense of health, vitality and crop yield.

Implement rhubarb correctly - explained step by step

The best time to transplant rhubarb is in early fall. The soil is still warm enough for the plant to take root well before winter. Here's how to do it:

  • Dig up the rhubarb and break it up into 1 kg pieces with a spade
  • weed the bed at the new location and work in a good portion of compost
  • Dig planting holes with twice the volume of the root ball
  • the planting distance is at least 100 cm

Before you put the rejuvenated rhubarb plants in the ground, lay a drainage at the bottom of the pit made of gravel, grit (46.95€) or broken pottery shards. After planting, the earth is trampled down and watered generously. A thick layer of compost mulch follows.

Rhubarb needs to acclimate after transplanting

For rhubarb, transplanting means pure stress. Therefore, allow the plant some time to acclimate.

A first harvest is only advisable in the second year after transplanting. Prudent hobby gardeners also limit this season to the period from April to May. From the following year, rhubarb thanks this foresight with a bountiful harvest of delicious stalks.

tips and tricks

You can easily determine the pH value in your garden yourself. Test sets are available in every well-stocked hardware store or garden center. They work by means of a coloring reaction and do not require any previous chemical knowledge.

GTH

Category:

Vegetable garden