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| I checked out my cousin's garden again today (she's still away), found the rhubarb growing very close to garage, between it and small polycarbonate GH. 1 plant is huge, but I'm going to wait until I have strawberries to cut the stalks (also would be nice to wait until she gets back for the summer!). But I'm wondering, how close to a building this should be? I remember growing up my great-aunt who lived on the farm had her rhubarb patch on the other side of the driveway from the house, not within 3ft of any building (not that I think it's like a tree and will damage the foundation, but I know they get huge leaves and spread). How much sun do they need? When's the best time to transplant? Now that her dad has died and she's newly single (happened all last summer, poor lady), she doesn't need and can't manage a large garden so we can transplant the rhubarb out more in the open where they had grown the annuals like beans, tomatoes, etc. The chickenwire fence is falling down (need new posts, wooden ones rotting out) - will deer eat rhubarb? I'd like to start a strawberry bed for her too, though those might be better to try to grow in gutters so she doesn't have to bend over (she's in her 70's). |
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| I cut the rhubarb now before it gets bitter and freeze to use with the strawberries. And if the plant is doing well where it is I'd leave it rather than risk moving it or at least wait till fall after it dies back to transplant it. It might not be as touchy about transplanting in your cooler zone but down here we have to sing to it daily to keep it going until it is well established and even then you don't dare look at it cross-eyed. Dave |
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| Oh, yeah, I wasn't going to transplant it now with hot (and hopefully drier) weather coming but didn't know if you did it in fall or spring. And where to put it? Does it like a lot of sun, or does it prefer shade? I know it won't produce during the summer anyway, but don't know if being out in the open will kill it during the summer, maybe that's why they planted it where they did? It just doesn't get much sun right now, being between the garage and the GH. Even if it likes where it is now (1 plant is really big), as they get bigger it's going to be really hard to get to it to harvest or fertilize. |
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| My plants get so big that I have given away all but three. They are happiest at the low, moist end of the garden that gets late afternoon shade but it otherwise in sun. The deer leave it alone completely. The best time to move rhubarb is early spring. A friend came and dug one in March, and a little division fell off the clump and took root along the edge of the gravel driveway. |
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| I'm trying to understand the reasoning behind the idea that it needs moving. You say it is large and healthy. You ask how much sun it needs - well, clearly the amount it is getting now. It will not damage the building and the building will not harm it, so if it's happy and healthy moving it would seem to be just making work. And you have no guarantee it will survive and thrive. It sounds as if your cousin has enough on her plate without tinkering with a plant which is doing fine. Rhubarb is essentially a zero maintenance plant once it's settled. Digdirt is right about pulling stems now and freezing. They become fibrous and tough as the season goes on. And I'm not sure about the strawberry bed idea either. Isn't that just making more work for her, not less? |
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| The idea of moving the plants was that maybe the others would get bigger if more sun. And if they get as big as the 1 at the end is now, then it will be hard to work around them. I know she wanted strawberries, in the ground would be a bit hard for her though, growing in an elevated planter would be easier for her to take care of, even if as an annual. |
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