Rhubarb, the digging up and replanting of!

**Capsid** · 12-03-2010, 12:09 PM

Why do you assume it won't put down roots? If there's green bits then I'd argue it's alive and just like new shoots/leaves will appear then so will the roots.

**womble** · 12-03-2010, 12:31 PM

I assume nothing, I just wanted reassurance that it would grow again.

**Capsid** · 12-03-2010, 01:03 PM

Well, nothing can be guaranteed. I'd be optimistic about it though.

**Paulottie** · 12-03-2010, 01:12 PM

Pretty difficult stuff to kill frankly

....be reassured. I did the same thing with some I found on my new lottie....chopped them up washed the couch out potted them for a while ended up with fifteen crowns. This is even after The old lottie manager even indiscriminately ploughed them occasionally; a mate sprayed them with glyphosate by mistake; some bits rotted a bit cos I left them in a bucket of water too long

...no, on balance, the should be fine

**womble** · 12-03-2010, 01:17 PM

Thankyou

I have heard they are difficult to kill off, but honestly, they just look and feel like old rotted tree roots. I guess that just must be the std thing for rhubarb

**WillyNelson** · 12-03-2010, 08:10 PM

I hacked mine to bits in the autumn (it was big, sprawling and mostly rotten) and was left with what looked like a screwed up ball of leaves with a couple of shoots coming out of it. Bunged it in the ground with some nice homemade compost and it's already back sprouting candy-pink stick of crumble filler. I reckon rhubarb is pretty unkillable.

**Sheepish** · 13-03-2010, 01:04 AM

I went through much the same worry when I split mine over the last few months, but the new shoots are now appearing for most of the plants. One or two still to show, or have died off, and I must check with the friend who took my spares how they're doing, but in general it has proved to be pretty damn resilient stuff.

**SarzWix** · 13-03-2010, 09:42 AM

I'm just in the process of doing the same with mine, and had similar thoughts to you Womble. The root of overgrown rhubarb is a very bizarre looking thing...

Does anyone know if you can/should crop it the same year after splitting, or should it be left to establish itself?

Can't see why it couldn't be replanted in the same place, if it's been weeded and the soil fed with something. So far as I am aware, rhubarb doesn't build up disease in the soil or pests aside from the bladdy slugs that hide around it...

**bobleponge** · 15-03-2010, 09:28 AM

I believe conventional wisdom says do it when dormant, split once 5 years old, and then replant.
I split one of my 3 year old crowns this year, to give a bit to someone else, and replanted dans la meme space.
I will leave it this year, wont take any stalks, let it do its own thing and will take again as normal next year.
It is, as has been said, pretty nails, and difficult to kill, but if anyone can manage it ....

**Nicos** · 15-03-2010, 10:04 AM

..famous last words boble!

Up until last year I'd say it was pretty indestructible...but not any more!

I'd split some of my lottie rhubarb to bring over here last Spring- about 4 plants
I gave one away which has done stonkingly well in one of their borders- and my 3 failed dreadfully!

One I think I planted with the crown a bit too deep- the other two I planted in the field having cleared a circle of 2 feet of grass.
They started to grow, but the leaves became very tight and bobbly and within days has simply disappeared.
Slugs perhaps from the field???

Ah well- I've brought a few more pieces over and although they've been sat in a plastic bag in the garage since November, have decided to start sprouting...so this time I'm going to put them in tubs to bring them on- and plant them in a cleared area when they start to die back for the winter.
I think perhaps the south facing aspect I'd originally chosen would have been too hot and dry for them anyway.

...different location...difference success/failures!

So- nope- they're not indestructible Captn Scarlet!

**Sheepish** · 15-03-2010, 11:55 PM

I wouldn't recomend trying this, but at the weekend I found a couple of bits of root I had discarded as not fit to use when splitting some plants a couple of months ago. They both had shoots coming up, even though they were just on the ground near the hedge. So it may take Kryptonite to stop them sprouting!

**perkin** · 16-03-2010, 08:35 AM

I, rather inadvertently, managed to finish off my rhubarb patch last year... I forced the stems in Jan/Feb placing an upturned dustbin lid over the plant, enjoyed lovely early rhubarb through to April before removing dustbin and leaving the patch alone for the rest of the year. It died down as usual in the autumn so I tucked it up with some well rotted manure for the winter.
Come Jan/Feb this year I eagerly awaited signs of pinky/red stems but nothing, nada, not a sausage. I eventually furtled in the soil mound to investigate only for the mound to collapse in on itself revealing absolutely no trace of rhubarb. I can only surmise it was either to weak/old to cope with the forcing or it has been stolen by underground rhubarb thieves...

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Rhubarb, the digging up and replanting of!

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