In article , Rusty Hinge
2 writes
The message
from Janet Tweedy contains these words:

Thinking about replacing my old clump of rhubarb, and paying attention
to janet B's recommendations to throw everything into a 6 foot hole
including old shoes to help feed it .

Four feet is ample.


I thought it might be nearer 4 feet now that I've got raised beds, even
that seem achievable!


Horses for courses. I'm growing Timperley Early, though champers rhubarb
responds well to gross feeding.



I've given the plant two bags of well rotted manure for the past four
years but the stalks are quite coarse and thick even when young. I was
told to pick the stalks when the leaf was flat out, but perhaps I pick
too late?


Why don't you just take cuttings/splittings from the outside of the crown?

Done that a couple of times but seems to still not achieve that very
sweet unstringy stalk.


Even old crowns like a feed, and respond well. (I've been piling kitchen
waste and fresh horse manure round my rhubarb, but not too close to the
crown. In a while the whole lot will be covered with well-rotted
straw-mould and capped with half-rotted straw to keep the warmth of the
horsh and waste in.



Would one of those hay bales that they sell for rabbits etc, do?

--
Janet Tweedy
Amersham Gardening Association
http://www.amersham-gardening.net