Top tips for Dunoon's rhubarb growers
HOW TO PLANT
Plant your rhubarb as soon as possible after receiving it.
1. Prepare the ground
The roots can go wide and deep, so dig at least two spade depths down and wide.
Add plenty of fresh compost or well-rotted manure to your planting hole. If you're using a raised planter, make sure it's a big one with plenty of room for the roots.
2. Plant the rhubarb
Take your rhubarb crown or potted plant and place it in its new planting hole or large planter.
Make sure that the crown of the plant is level with the top of the soil and not too far underneath, as it can rot easily.
3. Water it in
Give your rhubarb a good drink to settle it into its new home.
PLANTING TIP
From Brian Grout, Cowal-based rhubarb expert
“Plant in a position that drains water freely because rhubarb dislikes being waterlogged.”
HOW TO GROW
1. Water, but not too much
Keep the rhubarb roots moist, especially during dry spells, but it doesn’t like sitting in water.
In your rhubarb's first year, or if it's in a container or pot, water regularly during dry spells. Established rhubarb plants in the ground can be more self-sufficient.
2. Feed the plant
Add a fresh layer of compost or well-rotted manure and seaweed each year.
Apply a fertiliser in spring and roughly every two weeks during the summer season.
You can make your own fertiliser by soaking comfrey, seaweed or weeds in water to make a plant 'tea'.
3. Don’t cover the tips
Be careful not to bury the growing tips and top of your rhubarb with compost and other organic matter, as they can rot.
GROWING TIP
From Martin Gerrish of Grow Food, Grow Dunoon
“Annually, in the spring, add a good layer of fresh compost around the rhubarb.”
HOW TO HARVEST
Give your new rhubarb plant a year to settle into its new home before harvesting. Unless it is a variety that says you can lightly harvest in the first year.
Here are three tips for harvesting your rhubarb stalks.
1. Pull the stalks
To harvest a stalk, pull it off by getting a grip close to the base of the stalk. Don’t cut them!
2. Remove flowering stalks
To keep your plant producing fresh edible stalks, remove the flowering stalks as soon as they appear.
3. Freeze it
Chop and freeze what you don’t need, so you can store it for cooking at a later date.
HARVESTING TIP
From Lynne Maclagan, local gardener and POP shop community manager.
“To keep your rhubarb producing fresh stems, harvest stalks regularly through the summer.”
Don't eat the leaves, it's just the cooked stems that are edible.
More growing tips
Read more about growing rhubarb on the RHS website.
Watch this helpful video from Ben at GrowVeg on YouTube
Why rhubarb?
Why are we encouraging more people to grow rhubarb in Dunoon?
We’re starting a rhubarb revolution in Dunoon and Cowal. It's easy to grow, easy to cook, and rhubarb loves our local climate.
In 2024, we thought that mixing heritage stories, rhubarb growing and pop-making would be the perfect recipe for Dunoon Goes POP to celebrate 150 years of Dunoon Burgh Hall. We made 150 bottles of a rhubarb-flavoured commemorative pop, a drink named after the Hall’s architect Robert 'Bob' Bryden.
From primary schools and nurseries, to care homes and small businesses, we gave rhubarb plants to over 20 new growers in Dunoon. Local people came on board and started growing rhubarb or added their rhubarb patch to our Green Map, while others donated a whopping amount of rhubarb to help us make the Rhobob pop syrup.
Could Dunoon become the rhubarb capital of Scotland?
Hannah Clinch, co-founder of Dunoon Goes POP comments:
“The appetite for rhubarb growing and our pop syrup was so strong last year that it got us thinking. Local people seem to love rhubarb, and it is an easy-to-grow crop that loves our local climate. So could we come together as a town to grow more of this tasty crop and make Dunoon known for it? We think so.”
We’re calling on people around Dunoon and Cowal to join our rhubarb revolution!
To join our flourishing rhubarb community, it’s really simple. You can grow rhubarb, add your rhubarb patch to our Green Map and come along to our micro Rhubarb Festival. Get involved and let’s make Dunoon known for its rhubarb!
A community effort
Our community rhubarb growers include The Top Shop, Dunoon Burgh Hall, Clyde Cottage Nursery, Patchwork Nursery, Dunoon Primary School, Kirn Primary School, Dunoon Foodbank, Ardnahein Care Home and around 10 or so home growers from different areas of our town. We’re also growing rhubarb in our new Dunoon Goes POP garden.
Thanks to Martin Gerrish from Grow Food, Grow Dunoon who grew a batch of our new rhubarb plants from seed. Thanks also to Abigail and George for letting us divide their large rhubarb patch into new plants!