rhubarb leaves turning red - dying?

[Clara]

So I've managed to get rhubarb to live in southern spain , I was very pleased to see it make it through the winter and emerge through the mulch of donkey poo I'd covered it with as it died down last year. This is the second year, so the plants are still small (2 or 3 leaves) and I'm not harvesting.

However on a couple of the plants the leaves are turning red - any ideas? Are they dying?

I should mention that we're not in the baking heat at the moment, in fact it's been very wet and cold this winter/spring. How much sun will it tolerate? The willow that was casting shade on the spot has been severely tree-surgeoned because it got torn and bashed up in a winter storm, so I was anticipating having to create some artificial shade to protect them later on, but surely not now?

HELP! I want a rhubarb crumble next year!! TIA Clara

[Davy]

i have rhubarb and when the leaves comes into light must start of a redish colour and the turn green so if the leaves have only opened out then it is normal and rhubarb does best in full sun.

[Annpan]

I don't know what the problem is but my rhubarb thrives in the shade and all the gardens I have ever known have had rhubarb thriving in some shady, neglected spot.

It could grow out of it Clara - I think that one of my rhubarb plants had redish leaves the year we moved in - I have 15 or so rhubarb plants, but this one is in a different location to the rest. We didn't pick from it for that or the following year (when it got lost under piles of hedge prunings and rubbish). But this year it is thriving.... who knows why

I would give it time and shade, and see what happens.

[Clara]

Davy - the leaves were out and green and are now turn red, drying out and shrivelling. I think they are dying.

I'm going to move one of the ones that looks healthy this morning - presumably carefully and with a lot of donkey poo in the hole should help right?

[Peggy Sue]

I'm not sure it's the same thing but my fruit plants had red poorly leaves, I gave them some seaweed and they have perked up almost overnight to bright green again. Maybe worth a try, it could be short of some nutrient?

[Clara]

cheers, i'm not going to get any seaweed here - but I do have some guano, if it's just all-purpose feed i need or is there something particular about seaweed?

[Peggy Sue]

Well I got mine posted to me via internet shopping from Scotland....it says seaweed has lots of minerals and microbes that are brill for the plants, some say it's better than general feed but hey, how can you tell

[Spuddle]

We have recently moved house and brought with us 2 roots of rhubarb plants which grew happily (and extremely productively) for many years in our old garden. I planted them in the new garden in early April having dug in plenty of horse manure. I made sure that the crowns were above soil level. All seemed well until a couple of weeks ago when the leaves started turning red and blotchy - a bit like rust - and the plants are not happy. Is this crown rot? Or is it something else? Perhaps it's too much horse or donkey poo?

[Clara]

I never got to the bottom of it, though the two that were healthy perked up when I gave them better shading and some comfrey liquid. That said, one of the plants that died right back, I rather clumsily dug up and resited - writing it off as dead. That has since come back, it is in a shadier spot and has had a good dose of comfrey.

Perhaps consider your site, give it a good feed and don´t despair, they´re tough buggers!

[Spuddle]

Thanks Clara. The site is in full sun and is an area that has not been planted for some time so it may well be in need of a good feed. I shall give them some shade and try the comfrey feed and see what happens.

[chadspad]

Mine is very bad this year. The leaves turned red and now a kind of puce/yellow colour while the stalks have withered. Not a good year for rhubarb in my garden

[Spuddle]

I had three plants affected and I gave them a good water and a feed with comfrey. One of them is now looking pretty good. The other two are still struggling but I think there is hope for them. My neighbour, who has been self sufficient for some time and grows marvellous veg, has the same problem. Maybe it's something to do with the change in weather patterns?

[Peggy Sue]

Actually I think you are right, neither of my Rhubarb paches are doing well now and normally I ahve so much I don't know what to do with it by now so could be a bad year for it....on the up side got millions of Goosberries, so many the branches are draging on the ground

[Muscroj]

how long does the rhubarb season last? My rhubarb came up fine & I got a couple of harvests off it, but now the new stalks that have been coming up are short & weedy looking, wondered if they are lacking or whether it's been all the rain we've had in the last few weeks, or if they've just 'done their bit' for the season?

[Peggy Sue]

Rhubarb will keep producing stalks & leaves all summer but some say you should only eat in in spring. I've heard that later its not a 'nice and tender' and alos heard the Oxalic acid content is higher mid summer. Can't remember what dates were recommended for abstaining.....should really take more notice of these things!!