[littlelisa]

Hi all

I have  thriving rhubarb plant. It was here when I moved into my house, and had long, very green stalks. I thought rhubarb had to have red stalks to be edible/good, so on the advice of a gardening friend I did the following:
- split up the crowns and transplanted
- dug in lots of compost
and later
- cut the stalks to ground level
They've grown back in abundance, but there's still only a trace of red at the base. Happy plants, long flourishing stalks, not much red.
Do you wait til there's more red before picking?
Some sources say that there are varieties that are eaten green, but I don't know what variety I've got.
(I'm based in South Africa, by the way, so the season here is early summer - equivalent to late May in the UK)
Any advice?

Lisa

[mumofstig]

some rhubarb doesn't get very red............so cook some, as long as you don't eat the leaves 

[TheSpartacat]

You might get red stalks if you force the rhubarb?
I wouldn't worry about it being green though- eaten a lot of green rhubarb in my time. It usually tastes more or less the same (though forced rhubarb is more tender)

[Kleftiwallah]

Are you really sure it is rhubarb ! ? ! ?   There are a few plants (some poisonous) that look like rhubarb.   Cheers,   Tony.

[kermit]

My rhubarb planted from seed around 18 months ago had almost entirely green stalks this year. Only had a few pickings as young plant buttasted great. Think it's a varietal thing.