Rhubarb pick of the crop

Early rhubarb is prized by chefs, says Kitty Scully and growing the ‘hungry gap’ plant is easy from crowns.

For a novice vegetable and fruit grower, rhubarb is one of the easiest crops to start with. It is practically disease free, (bar the fungal disease crown rot which thrives in wet conditions), and will flourish without too much attention providing tasty stalks at a time of year when stored apples have gone over and little else is ready for harvest in the garden.

Grown for its delicious pink stems, rhubarb is a very hardy, frost-resistant plant that can tolerate partial shade and actually requires a period of frost in the winter in order to produce the best stalks. Rhubarb does best when planted in late autumn or early winter and can be grown from seed, but this is rather uncommon and the best option is to buy and plant one-year-old ‘crowns’ that have been divided from strong, disease-free plants.