Has anyone one got any advice on growing Rhubarb here in SW France?
I bought two new crowns 2 years ago and put them it a well manured new raised bed veggie patch. I didnt harvest any in the first year, but since then it has done nothing and looks very poor. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I do love a nice rhubarb crumble or compote!
In the spring you need to force the new shoots by covering with an old metal bucket or tin going rusty at the bottom. There need to be a few holes to let some light in but the extended hours of darkness produce beautifully fine and tender shoots which are really sweet.
It's just not cold enough in the winter. Rhubarb needs so many ,don't ask me how many, cold days to prosper. That's why in the famous Rhubarb Triangle around South Yorkshire rhubarb roots are dug up and exposed to frost before being condemned to the infamous forcing sheds where in the darkness and the warmth of a Yorkshire Spring they produce those lovely long tender shoots of rhubarb.
Also, it is a marsh plant really, so damp but not wet during dry periods. Know what it is like, we are in the SW too.
Thanks for the advice Brian, I will go and sweet talk the local farmer for a sack of sh...t and see if that does the trick. Having said that, my veggie patch was not much good at all this year, so will try cows rather than horses.
I have grown it successfully and here, as in the UK, it needs to be cow 'muck'. I did for it when living near Newmarket by using horse, doesn't work, listened to locals and use a heap of cow on my patch and by the end of summer (except this year - it is still sprouting leaves) we are heartily sick of rhubarb crumble. The roots are probably OK, so get heaping.