CHAPTER XXX. 

 RHUBARB. 



RHUBARB OR PIE PLANT. Rheum sp. 



French, rhubarbe; German and Danish, rhabarber; Dutch, rabarber; 

 Italian, rabarbaro; Spanish and Portuguese, ruibarbo. 



Rhubarb attains grand size and quality in California if due 

 attention is paid to the requirements of the plant, and it should 

 have a place in every house garden. It enjoys very rich soil and 

 will thrive on a great variety of soils, even from heavy clay to 

 light peat, providing ample moisture is afforded it. On heavy, 

 retentive soils it must have good cultivation or thick mulching to 

 prevent loss of moisture and surface baking; on light, coarse soils 

 either ample irrigation or natural sub-irrigation will keep the plant 

 thrifty and vigorous. It does not enjoy high heat and drought, and 

 reaches its best estate and is commercially produced in the coast 

 valleys or on river bottom lands of the interior, but it can be 

 very satisfactorily grown for home use on interior plains and mesas 

 providing constant moisture is supplied ; partial shade is also grate- 

 ful to its foliage in the interior, but is not necessary on the coast. 

 Since the wide introduction of winter-growing rhubarb, which 

 defies the frost and enjoys the ample moisture of the rainy season, 

 the range of the plant has vastly increased in California and its 

 commercial importance has greatly advanced. 



Culture. Rhubarb is grown from seed or propagated by di- 

 vision of the roots : the latter insures reproduction of the identical 

 characters of the parent, while from seed there is always a chance 

 of variation. 



Rhubarb plants may be grown from seed by preparing the 

 ground in the same way already described for asparagus, and the 

 same care of the seedling as there indicated will bring good, strong 

 rhubarb roots for planting out as yearlings. Mr. Ira W. Adams 

 gives the following special advice for rhubarb seedlings : 



Prepare the bed the same as for asparagus. Sow the seed in rows one 

 foot apart, and one inch apart in the row in a little furrow one inch deep; 

 tramp down lightly with the back of a steel rake and cover with the finest 

 of soil, as the seeds are small and light. When the plants are an inch or two 

 high, they can be transplanted into rows twelve inches apart, and four inches 

 between the plants. By fall they will be fine, strong plants, and can be planted 

 out the next spring in permanent rows. 



Root sets are made by dividing the roots of the older plants so 

 that each piece shall have a bud or eye. The most vigorous plants, 

 producing the largest leaves and thickest leaf-stems, should be se- 

 lected for this purpose. 



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