"Anne Jackson" wrote in message
The message from mewthree contains these

what is best to feed it with, since i didn't prepare the ground with
manure?

I've never had to feed rhubarb in my life, and I've been gardening (woman
and child) for over 60 years!

Good grief! I'm pea green with envy! You must have good soil. My stuff
(soil is nto what you could have called it) was so sick when I started here
that it's a constant round of soil improvement. I might be able to stop
doing that in about 5 years time as I now have worms which I didn't when I
started.

I never harvest rhubarb after the end of May, and what growth it makes
after that will, eventually, rot down...this feeds the plant.

This seems to be a very different thing than is done here in Aus. Your May,
would be equivalent to our October here, yet I've just stewed a batch for
tomorrows breakfast cereal a full 4+ months after you would have stopped
harvesting. Why isn't it usual to crop for a longer time in the UK?

Short term, for this year only, since you didn't do any initial
preparation,
I'd throw some general purpose fertiliser at it... it all depends what
your
soil was like to start with, really.

Wanna swap? I'll give you my Australian dirt first ever cleared of trees
and put to rough pasture in the 1960s for your soil which I'd like to think
has been under cultivation for at least the last thousand years. I pine for
good soil and a gentle temperate climate and that long Autumn productive
light you mob have over there.