The ultimate rhubarb guide to growing, harvesting, preserving and cooking with rhubarb. Lots of tips and recipe ideas for both sweet and savory dishes.
This rhubarb guide is a part of a continuing series of Ultimate Guides where you can find all kinds of growing information and delicious recipes for cooking – both fresh and preserving – a specific fruit or vegetable. See more fruit and vegetable guides here.
Rhubarb is one of those edible plants that’s considered a vegetable, but used like a fruit – in fact a US court decided in the 40s that it was a fruit for import regulations because that’s how it’s often used (source). It’s probably considered a bit unusual or old-fashioned, but it has some great qualities and lends itself to some fantastic recipes, so I really recommend growing it!
Rhubarb is a perennial plant and if you can get it established in a place that it likes, it’s pretty carefree, coming back year after year with minimal care. So it needs a permanent place – a rhubarb patch – where it can happily live and provide you with some of the first fruits of the gardening season.
Rhubarb is such a versatile plant to cook with and preserve – it can become a chutney for savory foods, ice cream sauce, pie & cake filling, jam, drink and more – and yet is still a mystery to some. I often get questions asking what to make with rhubarb or how to grow it, so I’m putting all the rhubarb growing information and recipes that I’ve collected into one ultimate rhubarb guide so you’ll have one place to come for rhubarb answers.
First, did you know that rhubarb is a member of the buckwheat family? So weird, right? It also has good amounts of vitamins C, K, and the mineral magnesium as well as some fiber and protein.
Most people are aware that the large leaves are poisonous (I always feel sorry for the people who discovered stuff like this, don’t you?), but I didn’t know until we moved into a new house with established rhubarb that not all rhubarb varieties have red stalks. Some produce mostly green stalks with barely a hint of red. I’ve learned that the green-stalk variety is hardier and easier to grow than the more popular red colored plants, so if you’re having problems getting rhubarb established, switching your variety may be the way to go.
Rhubarb Guide
How to Grow Rhubarb
- Rhubarb is most typically planted as one-year-old crowns, either bare root in very early spring, or in pots in later spring.
- Plant in the spring (as early as you can) in full sun and amend the soil a bit with compost before planting rhubarb crowns about an inch below the surface. Note: in warmer climates, rhubarb may do better in partial shade, though the stems will not grow as thick.
- If planting more than one plant, set them at least 3 feet apart – a well established plant can grow huge!
- Water well and consistently throughout the growing season, especially in the plant’s first two years. After that, I’ve found them to be fairly drought-resistent – they will die back if not watered, but will produce again the next spring. Of course that’s not the way to get the best, biggest stalks, but if you can’t provide water throughout the entire season once it’s established, it should be okay.
- The only fertilizer it needs is a yearly topping of compost. Keeping the ground mulched with a layer of the compost, grass clippings or straw is a way to keep the ground moist as well. Just keep any mulch away from the crown of the plant, which can encourage rot.
- To prepare your plant for winter, after the first hard frost, cut back any remaining stalks and dress with a light 2 inch layer of compost, leaves, or hay to protect the roots through the winter.
- Do not harvest the stalks at all the first year after planting to allow the plant time to grow with it’s full energy (although if it looks really healthy, it probably wouldn’t hurt to harvest 2 or 3 stalks to make some muffins with!).
- The only other thing to remember is to remove any flowering stalks that may appear (some varieties form more of these than others), as they take away the plant’s energy we want to go to root and stalk formation.
- Established clumps should be trimmed or divided every 4 to 5 years – when the stalks get small and spindly or when the crown is visibly crowded. This will help the plant keep growing nice thick stems. You can dig around the edges and trim the crown down to 4 or 5 buds or you can dig most of the plant up and gift somebody with a rhubarb plant.
I’m including a picture of my other rhubarb plant to illustrate what was mentioned in #1 above – rhubarb grown in more shady conditions will have thinner stalks and the plant and leaves won’t be as large. If at all possible, move to a sunnier spot unless the shade is allowing your plant to grow in warmer climates.
Although rhubarb isn’t known for growing well in the hotter southern United States, providing shade and water (and choosing the greener variety) may allow you to grow it successfully – the top growth will probably die back at temperatures consistently above 90 degrees, causing the plant to appear dormant, but as temperatures lower in later summer the leaves should start to grow again then or the next spring.
If all you can grow is rhubarb with thinner stalks, I’d vote for growing them! If you live in an area where rhubarb isn’t sold that you know of, the easiest way to make sure you can have some each season is to find a way to grow it.
How to Harvest Rhubarb
- To harvest individual stalks: the easiest way to gather the stalks is to pull up from the base of the plant, twisting slightly as you pull. Most will come out pretty quickly this way, but if some don’t, you can use a knife to cut a stalk off at the base, you just have to be careful not to cut anything you don’t plan on harvesting – which is why I prefer the pull-and-twist method. Cut off the leaves and compost them.
- When & how much to harvest: I’ve read various, sometimes conflicting, methods for when and how much to harvest your rhubarb – from only picking 1/3 of the plant during a season to cutting all the stems at once for a one-time harvest, and only spring harvesting to an all-season harvest. I aim for the middle, harvesting only the fattest stalks for about a two-month period, or until most of the new stalks are really looking thin. Every once in awhile, some stalks will look good again in the fall and I’ll harvest a few, but my main harvest is in the spring.
- To Freeze: trim and slice and pack raw into freezer bags, removing as much air as possible (I use the straw trick). You can blanch the rhubarb first, but I don’t (are you surprised after this and this?) and it seems to come out the same for me – either way it’s a much softer end-product, but still works fine for sauces or making jam or other canned items and sometimes even muffins if the slices are diced and added still slightly frozen.
Rhubarb Guide Recipes
Preserving Recipes
(Small Batch) Honey Rhubarb-Ginger Jam
Cooking & Baking Recipes
Rhubarb Chutney Salad Dressing
Click here to find more Ultimate Fruit & Vegetable Guides!
Sources: Organic Gardening, Wikipedia & The Rhubarb Compendium
Sue Winter says
I made rhubarb ice cream for my brother’s birthday and it turned out really good. I cooked down about 2 cups of rhubarb with about a quarter cup of sugar then put it in my ninja blender. I used a regular vanilla recipe and added the cooled mixture the last 5 minutes of churning.
Jami says
That sounds really good, Sue!
Karyn says
I’m having trouble growing/keeping my rhubarb plants alive. Tried planting seedlings and due to extreme heat the same week, they died. Tried again but put 2 plants in a giant pot and 1 in the ground. The one in the ground died but the potted ones did really well. I have noticed that 2 of the plants I planted in the ground that previously died are coming back. How do I keep the plants in the pot from freezing over the winter? I’m located at the base of Mt Hood and the area where these rhubarb plants are only get about 6 hrs of direct sunlight in the summer as we are in a canyon and surrounded by trees. This is my first try at growing rhubarb and I’m not sure what to do. It’s also my first attempt at growing anything outside due to physical limitations and since rhubarb is my favorite and I was told it is fairly maintenance free, I thought I would give it a try. Do you have any helpful hints for me about keeping these plants alive? Please help!
Jami says
You may yet be surprised at the plants that were in the ground, Karyn, sounds like they may come back for you. Pretty much anything small planted right before a heat wave will die, so there’s that. 🙂 I am not really one to advise you on potted plants, for me everything pretty much grows better in the ground! Wrapping the pots in some sort of burlap and moving them to a sheltered area (that still gets rain – you wouldn’t want them drying out) should keep them through the winter.
Dawn says
I have a huge patch that was on the property when we bought it. I did not use it for a while, but my mother in law and a few friends used from it. Then a nice lady I worked with brought in rhubarb coffee cake, I was hooked. I make it several times a year. I freeze it already cut up and measured for that recipe.
We found out that after spring harvest, if you cut back all the stalks, you get a great batch in the fall. So you can get 2 in one season. The stalks as you know lose flavor and get more hollow in center, but doing this ensures it will produce a second batch. Good luck everyone. This year I want to try rhubarb butter.
Jami says
What a great tip, Dawn – thanks! And I think you’re going to LOVE the rhubarb butter. 🙂
H bentley says
You say to ‘cut’ the remaining stalks approaching winter but I never ‘cut’ the rhubarb I always
pull the stalks. I have never seen anyone cut rhubarb.
Jami says
I do show how to pull the stalks when harvesting. At the end of the season, my rhubarb is soft and browning, making it sometimes not possible to pull – at that point it is easier for me to cut the remaining stalks all at once. You can do it however you like!
Suzy says
Hi Jamie, I want to thank you for this wonderful article and all the wonderful information it contains. We live in North-Central Colorado, about 30 minutes North of Denver. The last couple of years I tried growing rhubarb when we were living further South, about 20 minutes East of Denver. But because I am stubborn and for now we are forced to rent other people’s homes and I was refusing to grow beautiful rhubarb for other people, I attempted to grow my rhubarb in heavy pots. As you can probably guess, my attempts were a huge failure. So now that we have moved yet again, I have decided that since we are likely going to be here for 3+ years and it’s a nice big yard for a change, I am going to add rhubarb to my list for the garden I am planning for the spring of 2019. The area I am planning is approximately 17yds x 27yds., so I should be able to have a really nice garden for a change. The yard is so big, that I will still have approximately 27yds x 27yds of yard still to plan, for now this year I have to finish out the season with my makeshift container gardening. Did I mention that the temperatures here are also perfect for growing rhubarb. For the first time in a long time, I am excited about having a nice big garden. Blessings to you ~SuzyJCinColorado~
Jami says
How fun for you, Suzy, and what an inspiration to “bloom where you’re planted” – literally. 🙂
I wish you great gardening joy there!
Carrie Kwiatkowski says
Thanks for the great article, Jami! I’m harvesting my first rhubarb and noticing when I slice them the ‘flesh’ varies in color from green to pink. Should I steer clear of green-fleshed stalks? Or does it matter?
Jami says
No that doesn’t matter at all. 🙂 In fact, some rhubarb has been bred to be more green and some more red. You have a variety with both. It’s all good!
Carrie Kwiatkowski says
I made the big crumb coffee cake with it and it was delicious! Thanks for all the recipe links. 🙂
Jami says
Glad that was helpful – that’s one of my absolute favorites, too!