The best tips and hints

Harvest rhubarb

It is advisable to give newly planted rhubarb one to two years time and only then harvest stalks. If you remove this too early, the root will grow hesitantly due to the lack of leaf mass and the plant will not thrive.

As soon as the leaf stalks have reached a certain thickness from around mid-May, you can break them out:

• The stalks grow from a tuber and are simply broken off with a strong jerk and a slight twist.
• Leave at least half of the stems standing each season so that the re-formation of the foliage does not cost too much force.
• In particularly warm years, the rhubarb sometimes blooms during the harvest time. Cut out the flowers as quickly as possible, as these unnecessarily rob the plant of energy.

Since only the stalks of the rhubarb are used in the kitchen, you can leave the large leaves on the bed as an organic layer of mulch.

Caring for properly after harvest

On Midsummer Day, the 24th June ends the Rhubarb season. You should no longer harvest and consume rhubarb because of the increasing oxalic acid content. The plant now needs time and a little attention so that it sprouts vigorously again in the new year:

• Leave the large leaves as garden decorations. Some of the extremely attractive flowers can now also remain on the rhubarb.
• The leaves evaporate a lot of water on warm days, so water them if necessary.
• You don't have to cut back the rhubarb. The old leaves die off in late summer. Leave it over the plant as natural winter protection.

It is fertilized after the harvest and in early spring

Provide the rhubarb with nutrients before the harvest season in March. Compost mulch, rotted manure or Horn shavings.(€ 32.93 at Amazon *) After harvesting, you should again work some organic fertilizer into the soil.