"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
Farm1 wrote:
You will lose more money from waiting for the seeds to turn into a
croppable plant than you will from using crowns.

Agreed. I grew rhubarb from seed many years ago, both for fun and
because I was short of a few bob. IIRC, it was three years or more
before I could safely pull a few sticks. The other thing was that
the
plants were fascinatingly variable:

I've never grown them from seed but I've also heard that the seeds
produce variable offspring. I have always just acquired crowns from
friends as needed, but I have one variety now which is a total rip
snorter. I gave a crown of this variety to a friend, forgetting that
she actually grew rhubarb for sale. She thought I'd lost the plot but
planted it anyway and was so impressed with it that it became her
domestic consumption plant for a few years and then she started to
replace her 'for sale' crowns with it. I had to put it in a pot last
year to save if from sodding grasshoppers which were eating into the
crown before they could even burst.

I had to assess which seedlings to
keep when they were still very small. It was very interesting, and
it
didn't matter enormously for an amateur; but for commercial
purposes,
where margins are crucial, my selection would probably have been way
off. I'm not convinced that the named varieties will come true from
seed: mine was from Sutton's, and I don't think they gave it a name.

I wonder if they too had some doubts about it coming true from seed
and thus didn't name it???
If I was selling at a market stall, I know that I would just try
to
have a good looking rhubarb. Not many people are decent enough
cooks
these days to be too fussy about bought rhubarb. People who are
fussy
will grow their own even if they have to resort to putting it in a
giant pot to grow.

Well, yes. But even going by appearance does imply choosing a
reliably
good variety to start with.

Yes I agree, which is why I'd go for the crowns. There always seems
to be someone who is needing to bust up a large old clump and I've
never known anyone who isn't happy to give the unwanted crowns away.
At least by acquiring crowns there is some chance of asking about the
quality of the produce.

I'll be surprised if commercial crops
aren't blanched in Oz, as they are everywhere else:

It's actually reasonably hard to buy rhubarb at all (and the last time
I did buy it was in winter from a supermarket where the checkout chick
who must have been all of 10 year old didn't even know what it was. I
was gobsmacked). However, I'd be very surprised if it was grown in
any other way than in an open field situation. It's not the custom
here to do anything with one's rhubarb plants except to give them lots
of poop and lots of water.

you can't really
afford to offer stems with green on them for sale.

I have bought some with green on the upper part of the stems and I'll
quite happily pick my own that way too.

A small producer of
anything, whether rhubarb or cars, has to aim up-market. The UK
commercial boys grow the crowns outdoors, and then bring them on to
cropping in dark sheds -- in which it's said you can actually hear
them
grow! (I think the sound is of the buds breaking their papery
covering.)

I must admit that when I've seen articles on the Yorkshire??? rhubarb
houses, I've always been quite astounded at the investment. Rhubarb
is such an easy plant to grow that I've always wondered why they
bother. I can't really imagine that growing rhubarb which is a
delightful foodstuff could be all that mush improved by growing it
indoors. Either I just don't get it or there must be some
climate/location differences involved. A friend has told me that
forced rhubarb is worth trying so I've give it a go next spring but it
had better be knock your socks off better or I won't bother to do it
more than once.