The message
from Alan Gould contains these words:

If a rhubarb root clump is fairly old, or very large, or showing any
signs of rot etc., it is worth lifting and dividing it whether it gets
frosted or not. That is best done after the plant has become dormant,
i.e. around mid-October/early November. The root divisions need to be
back in the ground, preferably in a fresh place by the turn of the year
[Dec.21,winter solstice traditionally] in order to give them a chance to
make a really early start for the next crop.

If you do divide the crown, you shouldn't pull *ANY* sticks of rhubarb
from the replanted crowns the following year. If you have more than one
crown, you can leave one. If not, carefully remove a couple of the new
(outer) growths and leave the rest of the crown in situ, pulling from
that the following year.

Rhubarb likes plenty of nourishment. Back in the '60s my old man dug out
some weedy crowns and slung them on the compost heap, from where I
rescued them.

I took them home and prepared the ground. As per instructions from an
old gardening fiend I dug a trench three feet deep. (He said a four foot
hole for each crown, but a trench was easier, and four feet was, I
thought, overkill!)

As per instructions, I filled the bottom of the trench with bones, old
leather shoes (left over from a jumble sale) and old woollens, ditto ex
jumble, and mixed the excavated soil with rotted horse manure, hoof and
horn, dried blood and compost, and filled in the trench.

I divided the crowns, discrding the central portions, and planted the
outside roots in the resulting mound of soil. Keping the new crowns well
watered in the spring, they soon began to look anything but weedy, but I
didn't pull any, as per instructions.

One of my friends saw my jungle and asked if he could pull some. I said
no, but he could have as much as he wanted next year.

He was a bit miffed, but the following year he 'wondered' in the
biblical sense, and said how glad he was that I hadn't let him pull any.
It was waist-high, the leaves were vast, and the stems like wrestlers'
arms. One particularly large stick (not too old, and with the leaf
removed) weighed a pound. (·4537205 kg for any youngsters)

I thoroughly recommend giving rhubarb the works, and stop pulling it
when the gooseberries are ready for picking.

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