Question: Have any of you in the South ever tried growing rhubarb as an annual?

I grew up in the north where rhubarb was always available in season. Ah, rhubarb pies and my grandmother's canned rhubarb sauce. Wonderful stuff!
Down here it's too hot to grow rhubarb in the traditional sense. IF you can find it at any grocery (a BIG "if"), they have it only for a week or so and it's high priced. Not acceptable.

I've been doing some research and find that it can be grown as an annual here started from seed if it's started some time in July and planted out once temps start to cool down in the fall. A few young spears will be available to cut in spring before summer heat kills it. Time to do some experimenting growing it in a big container. The plan is to find a spot with six hours of sun but total afternoon shade and see how long I can keep it going.

At nursery trade shows we used to put ice on top of balled and burlapped show stock to keep them watered and I wonder if the same would help keep rhubarb roots cool on exceptionally hot days. For sure I'd paint the container white.

Interesting experiment [mention]GoDawgs[/mention], good luck!

Wow, I didn't know rhubarb had a hard time anywhere... it is practically a weed here. I might enjoy it more if it was all I could do to get a few little spears... My friend planted some here in a very shallow bed, which wasn't really thriving in the first two years of being completely ignored, so I decided to dig it and move it, and to build up that bed for something else.... now I have TWO patches of rhubarb because of course, it was just settling in deeper down and was delighted to have fresh goods heaped on top. I tried planting horseradish in the same area, and can't get it started, I believe it has truly died out. Shamed and devoured by rhubarb... There are enough crowns in that spot this year to plant a row of it (and then I'd have THREE patches...)
They didn't bolt this year, but last year it was spectacular, I should have saved seeds.
I will do that next time it bolts GoDawgs, you'll never spend another dime on rhubarb seed if I can help it!

[mention]PlainJane[/mention] , if you're interested here are two articles.

Growing Rhubarb From Seed (with advice on southern growing): https://www.southernexposure.com/blog/2 ... from-seed/
Growing rhubarb in a container: https://homeguides.sfgate.com/growing-r ... 75843.html
Tips For Growing Rhubarb In Pots: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible ... n-pots.htm

[mention]Bower[/mention] , you lucky dog! Rhubarb cannot take the heat. I'm going to push the envelope even if I have to bring it into the air conditioning at times. LOL!. Which variety do you have? They recommend 'Victoria' for any southern attempts at growing it.

I don't know what variety it is. It came from my friend's farm, I think she mentioned there are two vars there, one is redder than the other, but she didn't know which one it was - the stalks are nice and red though, especially when they're young. IDK if anyone around here has named varieties... my Mom has a big patch and that one came from my grandmother in Bonavista Bay. I guess it gets passed around so much here, people don't know if it ever had a name other than 'rhubarb'. I doubt it is 'Victoria' though.
Still they do set a lot of seed when they bolt, so I'll keep an eye out for that in future years. You never know how adaptable plants can be...

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention], the temperatures you show in your GLOG are not that much higher, if any, than what I have over summer here Down Under. What is your humidity like, ours is typically low, average under 40%, down to under 10% on the hottest days. I grow three clones, with stems getting to 12, 16 and 19 oz depending upon clone. Our winters are frosty some nights with days generally no more than 55F. Wondering if its as much to do with humidity as heat.

[mention]Whwoz[/mention] , it could be the humidity. The articles I read never mentioned humidity but then they really didn't mention heat in specifics but growing zones. I'm in Zone 8. Farther south in 9 & 10 it's definitely "grow as an annual". You're a lot more dry that we are. Last month we were sitting at upper 60's to 80% every day, which is why I stay inside in the afternoons!

I've tried rhubarb one time before and it promptly died in the summer. But that was way long ago before I could look up stuff on the internet so I really didn't know what I doing. That is not to say that I know what I'm doing now. LOL! But I am more well informed and will be trying sort of a combo of techniques gleaned from about five other websites. One site said sow seed 1" deep, another said 1/2" and one said 1/4". Based on the size of the seed I chose the middle route of "about 3/8-1/2".

I started three pots of seed last night, 2 seeds per pot after soaking them the recommended 2 hours. Off we go!

I think it may be. It might be humidity and lack of chill hours. I know that it grows well in some of the midwestern states with humid summers which makes me think it’s more the chill hours.
I’ve been thinking about starting from a crown, keeping it indoors for the summer and putting it outdoors in the fall to stay out until June or when it gets hot.
I too miss rhubarb. I grew up in CO and my mother grew it. She was from Minnesota and my grandmother made the best rhubarb sauce,pie,and jam. Sometime mixed with berries, sometimes not.my mother grew up very poor and way out in the woods of northern MN. She said the only desserts they usually had were rhubarb and rhubarb/berry sauces with a biscuit or bread unless it was a special occasion and they would have pie.
They grew, foraged or hunted/fished almost everything they ate except for flour and sugar.

Probably off topic, but we grew Swiss Chard really well this spring here. The plants seem similar, but I'm probably wrong.

My mom grew it in Missouri and south east Oklahoma.
It stayed there she never replanted it.

The link below is a download from Texas A&M

Thanks, Worth. I've added that to the other three articles in my Rhubarb file. Some overlap, some different ideas. One can never have too much information!

Three rhubarbs were started from seed on July 4th and you can really see the diversity of open pollinated plants. The one on the left really outpaced the other two in growth speed. The one on the right is more compact, slower growing and the stalks are already tinged with red whereas the bigger one's stalks are light green fading to light pink. The third one isn't feeling well and needs to recover before being planted out. Rhubarb doesn't like wet feet and I almost killed that third one with too much water, I think.

A progress report. Two of the three rhubarb plants I started late last summer and potted up early fall survived and have emerged from their winter slumber. To be honest, I had forgotten about them until I walked past them yesterday and re-discovered them. Out of sight, out of mind.



Now we'll see if they survive the summer heat. Right now they're sitting where the tomatoes were last summer. The area gets sun from late morning until about 3pm in the summer. Enough sun for a "full sun" plant like rhubarb but not so much they'll cook? We'll see.

An update:

The rhubarb experiment continues. They’re hanging in there but not thriving. We’ll see if they make it through the hot summer. They get sun from about 10:30 until about 3:30. It's a full sun plant but I think they'd cook in these 98 temps we're having.

Great that you kept them alive [mention]GoDawgs[/mention] . I think you're right to give them partial shade.
But if you can keep them alive in those containers, I bet they would do even better in the ground.
The secret of a good rhubarb patch is that once the roots have gone really deep, they're unstoppable.

I have to show you what happened to my little "patch" due to my attentions last year. Note that we harvested them pretty hard last season, and they pretty much died back in August when the weather was dry, I didn't bother to water them.
In September though I cleared and built up this little raised bed next to them, where I planted some perennial wheat. (The wheat came up and was promptly devoured by some critter or other, and doesn't look like any survived).
Once again, piling up good dirt near if not on the rhubarb has had a dramatic effect. There is a ton of stalks on this bunch, and they are well ahead of even the well tended patch at my friend's farm. She was here a couple days ago and just astonished at how bumptious my patch is doing. I think the insulating effect of raised ground near them would have benefits for your hot climate situation as well (not to mention the extra nutes that obviously flowed down to their root system).

Great story, Bower! That bed where the rhubarb pallet is sitting is empty now that the tomato pallets have been moved. And there are no plans for that bed so maybe I will plant the rhubarb there come fall. Fall would be the best time to transplant them, you think? Before or after they go dormant?

They do say it is best to transplant them when dormant, spring or fall. I bet they could make a lot of root growth during your winter, too!

I am in West Tennessee and planted three rhubarb roots that I bought at Tractor Supply three years ago. They grew well and got very large, but the stalks are more green than red. I guess this variety does not get a nice red color. I decided since it was not red to bush hog it down last fall. It came back this spring and two of the three bolted. I have left the seed stalks as I had never seen rhubarb bolt before.

[mention]GoDawgs[/mention] , you could plant from the pots into the ground without any problems at the size they are currently, have lifted plants the size in Bower's photo and had them do ok before today. Just removed the stems on that plant before lifting it. They are pigs of feeders, so give them heaps of organic matter, especially in the form of matured animal manure and keep roots cool.