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[SJC <indexer AT localnet.com>]

> Thanks for all the information. So it doesn't really get "ripe", you
> just harvest at the right size?
>
>   
Yep.  The big ones get tough/punky/stringy.
> .....Last year's drought was tough start anything. I watered it and gave a
> generous dose of goat manure in the fall. It seemed to like that.
>
>   
Yep again.  Mine are still getting 'goat shed floor leavings' several 
years after the goats are gone; it's a good combo...the oldest of my 
plantings is giant, and the  early-up stalks reached 7½' feet last year 
without Mudpie (my last Old Goat Lady) to chow them down.  I was 
amazed.  That plant was the first one I put in here and is about 20 
years old or so now.  I noticed today (this is our rhubarb 'season' and 
I all nine trays full on the dryer every day) when I picked up there 
that some of the plants on the hill have leaves almost a yard across.  
Those got 'planted' up there when I had a backhoe in here for some ditch 
work and he put a couple extra loads of dirt up there in a low spot and 
some roots must have gone along for the ride.....now hard to get to but 
I can't let them go unused.

Susan Jane