Homegrown fruit and vegetables come with many benefits, including making meals taste way better. However, growing your own crops can often require a lot of patience. Fortunately, for those planning to grow rhubarb, an expert gardener has revealed a little hack on how to speed up the vegetable’s growing process and give it an extra boost of sweetness.
Rhubarb is loved for its tart flavour and bright colours, and is considered to be fairly easy to grow. Its main growing season is between April and June; therefore, before the month ends, why not use this simple trick to grow your own and get a quick harvest out of it?
Jess Gough posted an Instagram Reel on her page @happy_smallholding, where she showcases the practice of forcing rhubarb. In the caption, Jess explains that forcing rhubarb simply means growing it in the dark.
She wrote: “The lack of light and slightly warmer temperatures inside the forcer encourage the rhubarb stems to shoot up rapidly in the light. Because it grows so fast, forced rhubarb is ready earlier in the season than regular rhubarb.”
The gardening expert also revealed that forced rhubarb comes out sweeter as “the lack of light reduces the presence of oxalic acid,” the organic compoud which usually makes rhubarb sour.
The practice of forcing rhubarb is fairly simple.
Jess explained: “To force a rhubarb plant, place a rhubarb forcer or something similar, like an upturned bin or bucket, over the crown just as it starts to bud. Make sure the light is completely excluded. Check once a week and harvest when the stems are about 30cm long or reaching the top of your forcer.”
The rhubarb crown is the part of the plant which includes the root and a dormant bud.
She also highlighted that depending on the variety of rhubarb and where you are, the plants could still be in bud or only feature small leaves and therefore the rhubarb would still be able to be forced.
Additionally, Jess emphasised that only “established crowns that have been in the ground for at least one growing season” should be forced, and that gardeners should avoid forcing the same crown for two years in a row, as it can weaken the plant.
She warned people not to eat the leaves as they are poisonous.