Rhubarb!Rhubarb!

I don't think I can really help Arlene. I've grown rhubarb in every kind of soil imaginable and it always grows like a weed. So, no help there. :o)
Right now I have two HUGE plants in the back of the garden that need to be dug, split and re-located. The roots are so big that I think I'll need a backhoe to get them out.
Mine get morning sun until about 1:30 and then shade...seems to work well to keep them out of the awful summer heat here.
One tip I'm trying this year is laying the leaves on the soil around one of my roses that always has rose midge. It is supposed to help kill off the larva which winter in the soil around the base of the plant. Don't know if it will work but it is worth a try.

Can't offer any advice, but I do like rhubarb crumble and custard!

~try tinned peaches with the crumble and serve with double cream~don't use all the juice about half of it!

Not sure how much success you'll have Arlene...Rhubarb likes *deep rich soil*...and is tetchy about it's roots...do a rhubarb search on goY...you will find pages of discussion about it!

~there are really big pots available up to 150litres on ebay which is where I bought the ones mentioned above, however that would definitely take up more room than I have available!
I have also got a bucket of neat horse poo~no straw~ which my husband says his father used to work in the top soil around the neck of the planted rhubarb they used do grow.
What do you mean by deep rich soil Lori~I was thinking pine bark, topsoil with grit and perlite~if it doesn't work maybe we can try raised beds.

I don't know if I should tell you this story or not, Arlene...you may be grossed out by it...but...eons ago, when I was a girl, I remember a spinster cousin who was the local expert on herbs etc. telling my mother that the reason her rhubarb grew so well and produced so abundantly was because she always planted it near where the old privy had been!! LOL!...
But what I mean when I say deep and rich is minerally rich...rhubarb likes a little clay...a nice clayey loam mixture....very rich in humus. The horse poop sounds perfect! just be careful because it's been my experience that if the soil is too good the plants put up blossom and want to go to seed! If it does bolt, just trim out the flower stocks to encourage the leaf growth. With new plants don't harvest in the first year, lightly in the second but by the third year it should be producing at it's max...you can take as much as you like.

They do like poop Arlene....My Grandad used to send my Mum out when she was a girl to scoop up the poop left behind by the milk cart horse or the rag and bone man's horse or the coal man's horse etc. He always put it around his roses and around the rhubarb. Rhubarb also apparently like iron.....An old farmers tale was to bury some nails in the hole when planting rhubarb.

Yes it does like a rick soil...My memory of picky rhubarb as a child was being sent to the edge of the cow manure pile next to the barn where dad tossed manure from the cows feeding stalls....it seemed to grow by itself there with no real work..except for picking it...the canned peaches in the crumble sounds so good Arlene....

~nothing would surprise me Lori!
years ago I worked with someone who always joked anout dead cats under his sweet peas.....at least I think he was joking!
CJ ~another version is pears and plums~the dark purple kind stewed together with grated ginger and then when soft put the crumble topping on and srve with double cream and or custard!

The pears and plums sound good ...but I do love the tartness of rhubarb so much,,,that is what I would likely want to add to most anything..lol..

Cj ~ do you like bumbleberry pie? A mixture of rhubarb, apples, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries? Oh yummy yummy yummy.

Oh ..you betcha...lol..with some vanilla custard ice cream would be good..lol...

Just been enjoying your stories about the rhubarb. My husband always tells the story about the midnight flyers they use to empty the dry toilets.when we were all asleep. they use to empty the product on to the rhubarb Fields.
And he says the rhubarb came back in can's lol.
since we have been in franch I have made rhubarb Jam you have to try it to find out how good it is.