Rhubarb disaster

Did you give the plant a good lot of manure to get started  , the soil in the photo looks like it has had most of the nutrients taken out by the grass. It may have burnt itself out with the first lot of leaf and have nothing in reserve. If this is the case a bigger hole full of homemade compost or well rotted dung may save it.

that really dont look very good, I think you should plant some new seed and start a couple of new plants so you can get them in the ground by december time, if you want some seed ive got a couple you can have, let me know and I can post them.

Thanks to all for your interest - most encouraging! 

I think lack of sufficient preparation could be part of the problem.  I put manure around it but not underneath.  Will certainly move it and prepare the ground better - there does appear to be a fresh green bud in the centre but this does not show in the photo. 

Will report back next spring!

Surprised the rhubarb has struggled I've always known them to be tough plants (based on family members plots). I've even known a few plants being dug up and left in a pick-up for a week or so then left in plastic bags for a bit longer before being planted in a shaded corner of a garden, hidden behind a compost heap and  a shrub in a small wasted section of the garden where nothing much but grass and weeds seemed to grow. They took off straight away. They were from a rhubarb grower's field that was about to become a road and as such were at the end of their growing season so were probably done in. That was just to show how tough they can be. Of course I guess even the toughest of plants like a little food.

I know of someone with the remains of an outside toilet (earth closet dating from about 3-400 years and a double one too), outside it against the back wall is a really old rhubarb plant. It was really big too. The reason for mentioning it is that there was a tradition for these plants to be outside these facilities for a certain reason. Let's just say they were into recycling back then.  Apparently it is supposed to be very good for rhubarb. Wonder if that is a myth or true.

'When i were a lad' my friends father would empty the contents of the 'gazunder' on the rhubarb every morning and everybody would say what a magnificent bed of rhubarb he had.
I wasn`t keen on rhubarb as a kid , can`t think why .

Mine has to make do with the run-off from the compost heap and is 4ft high at the moment.

Well it is not unusual for people subsistence growing to personally add to the soil. Its just us more "civilised" folk over here kind of feel embarrassed about it or that it is unnatural or unclean.

Having said that if I get my allotment tonight (decision and inspection time on my potential first ever plot) I won't be using any of my own natural product on the plants. Although rhubarb has now been added to gooseberries and peas as potential crops. So that is gooseberries, peas and now rhubarb. As you can tell I am just starting out.

Hey! Can you propagate rhubarb? Or can you split a plant down to get more plants? Just thinking of a midnight run to my parents the next time they go on holiday as they have a few good, healthy rhubarb plants. Just keep that one under you hats.