~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List Manager: Puregold Goldfish List
The balmy "south" near Madison. 1F at 5:40 this brisk winter's morn. Windchill -14F. Cold feet but our heart's warm.
Plant them in full sun, if you can. Give each crown a 3 or 4 foot circle to fill, and it will fill it.
Go find a couple of buckets full of horse or cow manure, quick. Dig a couple of holes. Dump most of the manure in the holes, plant the rhubarb. Top dress the crowns with the leftover manure. Water them in good.
If you can't find cow poop, use compost. Rhubarb is a heavy feeder.
Plant them in full sun, in a place where they can get 3' wide without ticking anyone off. We use them for foundation plantings up here in Alaska. They look cool and you can eat the stems :) (I have recipes.)
In the fall, get ahold of buckets of rotted horse or cow manure and just dump them on top of your rhubarb plants, after the leaves have rotted down from the killing frost. Rhubarb *loves* manure. Pile it on, and you'll have happy plants.
Rhubarb is hardy in USDA Zone 1. I live in USDA Zone 4 and we can't get rid of it with a napalm strike. It's hardy as hell.
Rhubarb and strawberries are a natural combo in pies.
Jan, Alaska
Thanks, Jan for your detailed reply. I now khow where and when and how to plant. Your reply has special meaning because I grew up in the Yukon, your neighbour! We lived in a trailer in a gravel pit so nothing grew there.
Did you grow up in Dawson City or one of the other mining camps? Trailers and gravel pits seem to sprout like mushrooms around miners : ) Rhubarb will grow in mining camp gravel -- I've done it! (Used to gold mine in the 40mile, just across the border from Dawson, and did all of my grocery shopping in Dawson.)
You're welcome! Be sure to put some of your earliest rhubarb in the freezer, for sauce over ice cream in the winter.
Jan
Grew up in Whitehorse area. Have been to Dawson a couple of times, Fairbanks once. Liked Fairbanks very much. Dawson City has excellent soil and sun for growing. Many fantastic gardens in Dawson. Whitehorse does less well but I am not sure why. With Gold doing better more recently there should be a return to gold mining in Alaska and the Yukon.
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