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Index : Vegetable Gardening
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- 2. Yes You Can Grow Rhubarb in Tucson - Top
- Rhubarb is an old garden favorite for many of us who grew up enjoying it’s unique tart flavor in pies, cobblers and sauces. But rhubarb is a northern grown perennial, not adapted to sub-tropical regions like we have in Tucson. At least that was the conclusion I drew. But I stumbled on an article about growing rhubarb as an annual; planting it in the fall, growing it in the cool winter months and harvesting it’s tasty leafstalks in the spring. So, I though we’d give it a try here at the UA Extension Gardens on Campbell Ave. To see what would happen.
We chose the rhubarb variety ‘Victoria’, as the literature indicated it was the best Rhubarb for forcing (starting from seed) and growing to harvest in one season. Victoria produces a plant three feet wide and tall with large dark-green leaves. It’s tart green leafstalks are tinged in red, extending up from the base. As many as 30, eighteen-inch-long leafstalks can be harvested from just one plant. Easily enough to make 2 pies.
Our Victoria rhubarb seeds were purchased form John Scheppers Kitchen Garden Seeds in Bantam Connecticut. It’s the only seed source I could find for this variety and they can be ordered at: www.kitchengardenseeds.com or by phoning 860-567-6086.
Our seeds were planted in the second week of September in 4 inch pots in a mix of 2 parts vermiculite, 2 parts perlite and one part peat. Seeds germinated in 7 to 10 days with even moisture. When the first true leaves formed, our plants were feed weekly with a water soluble plant food. By mid-October, plants were large enough to plant out in the garden.
Rhubarb requires a rich, organic soil. It can be planted in ground beds or raised beds. When preparing the area to plant, mix in lots of organic amendments, such as composted manure, topsoil rich in peat, or bagged plant compost. Prepare the soil to a depth of 12 to 18 inches. Remove all rocks, stones and caliche. Our rhubarb was grown in raised beds; one filled with compost, the other with a mixture of soil, peat and composted manure. Or raised bed with a mixture of garden soil and organic matter seemed to produce the best plants. At the time of soil preparation, also mix into the soil a fertilizer high in phosphorous and potassium, such as 5-10-10 using about a quarter-cup per plant.
Plants set out in October will grow and develop and extensive roots system, but only a limited amount of leafy growth. Through the fall and winter, rhubarb should be watered often enough to keep the soil evenly moist. Sometime in January or February plants will appear to die back, nearly to the ground. This is normal. Continue watering to keep the soil moist. As temperatures warm in early March, plants that appeared to be dead will come alive and begin growing. In 4 to 6 weeks, the rhubarb will be nearly full size and ready to harvest.
With our experiment, we harvested all but one or two leafstalks to see if the plants would continue to grow. They did, and within a month of the first harvest we had a second crop of leafstalks nearly as large and numerous as the first. A work of caution, for those unfamiliar with rhubarb, only the stalks are edible. The leaves are in fact poisonous if ingested!
The results certainly indicate that rhubarb can be grown successfully as an annual here in Tucson and other low and middle elevation locals in the Southwest. Not only that, but our rhubarb passed pie & cobbler taste tests with flying colors!
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona,
520-626-5161.
- Updated: July 23, 2006
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