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Rusty Hinge[_2_] · 30-01-2011, 03:42 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

wrote:
Bill Grey wrote:
Are you going to force it? At least put a bucket over it.

I don't think we were planning to. We forced it 2 years ago and then let it
grow naturally last year to recover, thought maybe we'd give it another easy
year. Or maybe we could force one and leave the other. Hmm. Decision
time!

Do what the commercial growers do: split the crown and replant the best
young satellites, then replant the remainder in tubs in a shed and force
that, and don't pull even a stick from the new crown(s) until the
following year.

You can take the forced roots out when they've been plundered, keep them
well watered and fed (pongy nettlejuice is good) and keep them if
necessary until the new crowns are well established.

Cosseted, you can expect to get stalks weighing up to a pound each. My
old man dug up and threw away all the rhubarb because he'd not fed it,
and it was really skinny - stalks almost as thick as yer finger...

I dug a four foot deep by two foot trench round a bed and filled it with
old woollies (not Woolies), bones, leather, well-rotted horsesh, soil
from the trench, bonemeal, and planted the satellites in the resulting
mound.

Continually watered and left for a year without pulling, the following
year's crop was gigantic.

--
Rusty