2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Rhubarb (Latin Rheum) - a genus of perennial herbaceous plants of the Buckwheat family. Natural range - Asia and Europe. Currently, more than 20 species are distinguished, some of them are capable of producing various crosses. It is especially difficult to obtain a clean look with the seed method.
Characteristics of culture
Rhubarb is a perennial herb with a powerful woody rhizome and straight, thickened aerial stems. Basal leaves are large enough, whole, serrated or palmate-lobed, sit on multifaceted or cylindrical petioles of green or red color, equipped with bells at the base. Stem leaves are small.
The flowers are greenish or white, unisexual or bisexual (depending on the degree of development), collected in large paniculate inflorescences. The perianth is simple, equipped with six leaves, the same or different in size. The fruit is a triangular nutlet, narrow-winged or wide-winged.
Rhubarb is a cold-resistant culture, it develops and hibernates in the Non-Black Earth Region without any problems, in central Russia it needs careful care and shelter. The optimum growing temperature is 20-24C. Seeds germinate at 5C. Rhubarb rhizomes tolerate frosts down to -25C.
Growing conditions
Rhubarb is photophilous, it develops well in sunny areas. Adult plants easily tolerate light shading, specimens of the first year suffer from a lack of light. Soils are preferred light, fertile, air and water permeable. Clay chernozems, loams and cultivated clays are optimal.
Despite the fact that rhubarb is moisture-loving, it has a negative attitude towards waterlogged soils. This often leads to decay of the rhizome, and subsequently to death. Choosing a site for rhubarb is one of the most important tasks, since the culture will grow on it for 10-15 years. The site should be free of perennial weeds, including wheatgrass, sow thistle, and weeds.
Reproduction and planting
Propagated by rhubarb seeds and division of the rhizome. The culture is grown mainly in seedlings. Before sowing, the seeds are soaked in water until they swell, and then placed in wet gauze or burlap. With the appearance of white sprouts on the seeds, they are dried and sown in seedling boxes filled with fertile soil. Shoots appear on the 5-6th day. Seedlings are planted in unprotected soil in May. If the sowing was carried out in nurseries, then the young plants are planted next spring.
It is not forbidden to sow rhubarb directly into open ground. In this case, sowing is done in an ordinary way in late April - early May. The seeding depth is 2-3 cm. With the appearance of 3-4 true leaves on young plants, the crops are thinned out. The distance between the plants should be about 20 cm. In the future, the plants are planted at a distance of 100 cm from each other.
During vegetative propagation, healthy mother bushes are divided with a knife so that each division has a sufficient number of roots and 1-2 growth buds. Delenki are immediately planted in the ground, watered abundantly and shaded for several days from direct sunlight. This procedure is carried out in early spring. You can get at least 5-10 divisions from one plant.
The site for rhubarb is prepared in advance, the soil is dug up onto a full bayonet of a shovel, filled with organic matter (at the rate of 2-3 buckets of rotted manure or humus compost per 1 sq. M), mineral fertilizers are applied (ammonium sulfate or urea - 30 g, potassium chloride - 30 g, superphosphate - 60 g). Acidic soils are subjected to preliminary liming.
Care
Caring for rhubarb after planting in the ground consists in weeding, loosening, watering and feeding with mineral and organic fertilizers. It is important for culture and pest and disease control. Plants are most often affected by buckwheat fleas, beetles and larvae of the rhubarb elephant, rhubarb bug, ascochitosis (or spotting) and gray rot. It is not recommended to use pesticides, it is better to try all known folk methods, they are also effective. Starting from the second year of life, uterine stems are formed in the culture, they greatly deplete the plants, so they should be removed. Fertilize rhubarb every 3-4 years.
Harvesting
Harvested in the second year after planting. In the first year of life, rhubarb forms petioles that are quite suitable for feeding, but they cannot be broken off, as this can significantly weaken the plants and reduce yields in subsequent years. The first cut is carried out in May, then the collection is carried out as needed. Cutting is stopped 2 months before the end of the growing season. In the first 2-3 years, up to 1-2 kg of petioles can be collected from one bush, later - up to 4-6.
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