[alang]

Sorry if it's a fruit. I'm never sure which it is.

Question is. I've wanted to get a rhubarb crown for ages now and i'm seeing quite a few of them appearing on evilbay.

When is the best time of year to buy and plant one? I know about soil prep so that's not an issue.

[macgro7]

Winter. I just divided one last week.
It's the easiest thing to grow in the world!
Plant it once and have it for lifetime!

[alang]

So buying and planting a crown now would be useless?

[RCTman]

Go ahead , buy and plant it will be fine.

[macgro7]

It'll be fine ! Just make sure its watered during the first year at least. After that it will grow huge massive roots size of large carrots that will keep it growing for years!

[alang]

Cheers

Time to start looking for some rhubarb on evilbay 

[alang]

I am seeing on evilbay that some sellers are offering rhubarb 'bulbs'. I've heard of seeds and crown but never rhubarb bulbs. Any ideas?

[macgro7]

Shall I just you a couple? We only eat them a couple of days a year really lol but love growing them.

[alang]

So bulbs are actually a thing then? As i said earlier  i've only ever seen rhubarb plants come as seeds and crowns.

So do these bulbs produce the stems like those mentioned above?

[macgro7]

No idea. I have some crowns available - 2 varieties. Dont remember their names but one has been growing for about two months now. The other one I just sprouting back after the winter.

[cloddopper]

Grow your own from certified seed it's cheaper as most of the seeds will germinate and give you rhubarb  towards the end of this years season . Champagne or Victoria are decent seeds to use . Think my 18 seeds cost me £ 1.35 eight years ago . Every one became a decent crown ready for planting out .

Plus & a big plus at that is that you will not be importing  pests in a crown into your garden . It also gives you time to make up a deep well manure bed for the baby plants when they are about six inches high .
 PS
 Split & move the crown after every fifth year after  last harvest to a new deep manured site  ..it helps to prevent crown rot & stops disease build up like honey fungus .

 If you don't move to new  well manured ground after 5 yrs  the plant may live to 10 yrs old but you wont get good crops.