Pam,
I am not sure what you mean by "the first
bud". Numerous leaves and stems appear in the beginning of the
season. Whenever I see a flower bud I try to cut it or break it near the
ground.
My greener and hardier variety of rhubarb grows
buds/flowers, but the other varieties rarely do.
Christine B.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 11:47
AM
Subject: [Market-farming] Rhubarb
Someone just gave me a tip about preventing rhubarb from
flowering, in order to get higher yields, and I wanted to see if anyone had
tried this. The suggestion is to take a sharp hoe and slice off the first bud
that emerges in spring (which is right now for us). The idea is that this is
the flower stem, and removing it early on will let the plants energy go into
producing leaf stems.
Has anyone tried it? Did it work?
The tip
comes from a grower in BC, Canada, which is a very different latitude and
climate from central Virginia where I am now growing rhubarb. Theoretically,
it's too hot here to grow it, but we do have some success. Compared to when I
grew rhubarb in northern England, near the rhubarb capital of the world, it is
much less successful. Here we get thin stems, and attempts at flowering all
season (April and May). We just harvest twice a week and cut the flower stems
out at the same time. If a single swipe with a hoe this week can solve the
flowering problem, that would be great.
If I don't hear from anyone
else who's tried it, I'll probably do a few and see what heppens.
Pam
Twin Oaks, central Virginia zone 7
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