How to divide, force and grow rhubarb
A perennial edible that's easy to plant and enjoy for years to come
I love rhubarb for two main reasons. One it is such a versatile crop to cook and eat, the stems delicious if sweet and cooked for about 20 minutes in brown sugar or with sweet cicely leaves, in a crumble or infused in gin. The other reason is that it’s one of the easiest perennial edibles to grow. Plant it and leave, that’s all there is to it!
If you like rhubarb, it’s also easy to propagate through division and winter, when it’s dormant, is the time to do it. I divided ours in mid-January during a mild week, you might want to wait until nearer spring for less risk of damage to the cut roots from cold and wet.
How to divide rhubarb for more plants
Divide plants that are at least 3 years old and large, with multiple visible growing points, as shown above.
Dig up the entire rootball trying not to damage too many roots, though damage is inevitable given the thick deep roots it forms. Rhubarb roots can be large and heavy, you might need help from someone else.
Identify one or more good growing points on the rhubarb plant to divide that would give you pieces with a growing point and roots - they’ll need both to grow! Use a spade, line it up carefully and then slice through with your foot on top of the spade for a clean cut.
This will give you different pieces to start new plants. With our rhubarb shown, I divided it into just two plants.
Replant each piece immediately to the same depth as before, with the growing points just raised from the ground. This is important to avoid rot on the growing point of the plant if replanted too deeply.
How and why to force rhubarb

Forcing rhubarb is when you place a large pot or bin over the top of a rhubarb plant to force the stems to stretch for light. It’s important to block all light completely. Placing something over the rhubarb plant it also creates a microclimate that is slightly warmer and drier, encouraging the rhubarb to grow a little bit earlier.
The main reasons to force rhubarb are to encourage slightly earlier crops and for the treat of those sweeter stems, less sour than they are normally.
It’s important to only force well established and strong rhubarb plants, and to give them a break each year. Grow multiple rhubarb plants to force them in a rotation, with a year break each between forcing.
How to harvest rhubarb
You can harvest from established rhubarb plants that are a couple of years old as soon as new stems start growing, until about June or July, giving them a break in the summer to build up energy for next year.
Picking the rhubarb stems is easy, grab each one near the base and twist it sideways to snap it off the plant. This remove most of the leaf stem whereas cutting would leave a bit on the bottom that can rot. It seems brutal but is in fact better!
While the stems are edible, whether they’re green or red, rhubarb leaves are poisonous, so cut those off and put them on the compost heap.
Rhubarb cultivars to grow
Currently I am growing rhubarb ‘Canada Red’, which is our strongest plant, ‘Raspberry Red’ and ‘Champagne’. These are all tough cultivars bred for redder stems through the whole year, I chose them because I like the red colour. I’m yet to decide my favourite for flavour.
Other rhubarb cultivars to try include trusted ‘Victoria’ and ‘Timperley Early’. Rhubarb cultivars crop at different times, which is worth exploring if you want to create a good succession.
We had three rhubarb plants, which is a good number but I’ve divided all of them to give us six plants, which feels a better number for crops without worrying about them running low each year.
Tips for growing
Rhubarb is really easy to grow, they like any soil that is moisture retentive but not waterlogged. Basically everything except sharp sand soils or waterlogged soils. Plant them in full sunshine to a little shade. Give them about 1m of space each.
If your soil is on the poorer side of nutrition, i.e. it’s a bit greyer than rich humus brown, top up around the plant in spring or autumn with 5cm of compost, keeping it away from the growing points (called the crown) to avoid rot over winter.
There is no need to fertilise or water rhubarb, unless we have a prolonged dry spell in hot summer.
p.s. paid subscribers have access to all of my advanced lessons including this week’s on contemporary matrix planting design:
My mom loathed rhubarb, so I did not try it until my late 20s. I am making up for lost time: I have 6,of 5 different varieties (no two people agree which is best, lol). The first time that I divided one, I kept thinking “it does not look right to do this”, but it worked splendidly. Your pics would have been so helpful!. Any light-excluding cover will do, but I managed to get two big, sexy terracotta ones at a fabulous discount from a grade centre removing lots of stock. Score! Rhubarb is so exciting sprouting in the spring, and I love sharing it around. , spreading the rhubarb love. A great beginner crop, too
I grow rhubarb even though we don't really have the room because my Dad always grew it at home and my mother's rhubarb tart was a staple (and still is, I'm happy to report). The crown I have I got from my Dad and I don't know what the variety is, but it's pink and not green, and he's been growing it for at least sixty years, so it's got a good heritage.
I hope you're all not being hit too badly by Storm Éowyn, we were battered last night here in Galway and the garden looks a sorry state this morning, but no real damage thankfully. I saw clips of Galway on the ITV News so we're famous now 😄