[sunshineband]

I thought it was just mine that was poor.

They are crowns I dug up from Dad's garden, which hadn't been moved for at least 40 years, so the roots did suffer some damage.

And suddenly I have huge great stems, just when you are supposed to stop cropping 

[gillian62]

Mine have been rubbish, but suddenly sprouted in all the wet weather over the past couple of weeks.  They now look how they should have done 2 months ago.

[Christine]

Yep, same here - good until the dry weather took hold, then they stopped growing. They're starting to throw up some new shoots now, so I may get some more to eat before the normal end of season.

Snap. Throw in a hurricane some weeks back to add to your description though.

[hubballi]

Mine rotted off and hasn't come up again :-(

[Trillium]

Mine rotted off and hasn't come up again :-(

Rhubarb cannot sit in a depression/ground dip as the water will collect and rot the whole plant. Perhaps if you bought a new plant (so you know its free of disease,etc) and plant it into a bit of raised mound so you know water will run off rather than pool at the crown. Be sure the hole itself was filled with lots of rotted manure, some BFB and anything else good you might have. Water well at planting time then it can fend for itself. You can literally kill some plants with kindness.

[Topscaff]

I think is lack of rain water mine is poor just starting to move now we have had a drop of rain. Mike

[Endymion]

We've got two plants.

One was new to us this year (February). It was a huge anonymous crown somebody was throwing away. It's done remarkably well, especially over the last fortnight and is throwing up loads and loads of leaves. We ought to leave them alone, but they seem too tasty to ignore.

The other one was a named variety which we bought last year. It was carefully planted, has been fed and watered, but it's just lost its' last two leaves, so I think it's died. 

[radiohead]

Mine have been pretty good,specially since the rains came...I kept them watered through the dry spring but there's nothing like rain. One victoria has been a problem since planting,loads of flowers and stems very green,so a couple of weeks ago I blitzed it,stripping off nearly all the stems...reasoning kill or cure. It's now looking pretty good,with nice pink stems sprouting up.
Cawood delight and red champagne also putting up lots of deep red stems,and timperly early going really well...(I'm a bit partial to 'barb as you may have guessed!).....freezers already well stocked!

[kevinp]

Mine was a new plant last year pot grown and its been fantastic giving lots of good sized stalks.

To save starting a new thread when do most people stop taking the stalks ?

[radiohead]

I stop around august....but I have 6 plants so none are heavily picked.....I would suggest if you only have one or two and pick regularly you should stop around the beginning of july,and if it's really dry keep watering right through the summer to give them a chance to build up.

[veggirl]

The crown I bought last year is still sitting with one leaf, sulking. The plant my mum bought me earlier in the year is growing like crazy, but I wasn't planning to pick any this year. Those allotmenteers that had early varieties had fantastic crops, and gave me loads anyway.

[Azazello]

I've just come back from holiday - before I went it was OK.

We seem to have had two weeks of rain while I was away and I went to the lottie today to check it out and I have to say that it's bloomed magnificently while I was away stuffing my face with pate and wine.

Is it too late to take any more?

[radiohead]

I'd take it......probably up untill the end of july will still give it time to recover. As soon as you finish pulling the stalks give it a thick mulch of well rotted manure/compost,and keep it watered if the late summer is dry......mulch again in early spring .....and make sure you have plenty of custard in

[sunshineband]

I now have two more rhubarb plants a friend has given me, that she grew from seed.


They each have three leaves, so cropping from them might take a while 

[operabunny]

Mine were cropping very heavily early in the season and I had promised some to various friends as I thought I would have more than enough to eat and freeze. Then the drought started and the rhubarb stopped - all the new stalks were very thin and slow growing. As soon as the rain started they were off again though, so I don't think any long term damage was done. I just have disappointed friends!