RHUBARB 405 



Rhubarb houses are always piped for overhead or side heat, 

 bottom heat not being practicable, since the plants are set on the 

 ground. From five to six weeks are necessary to bring the crop to 

 marketable condition, depending upon the temperature maintained 

 in the house. Another plan of forcing rhubarb is often employed. 

 Strong one-year-old seedlings or nursery-grown cuttings are al- 

 lowed to freeze after having been plowed out in the fall, or the 

 roots are placed in the freezing chamber of a refrigeration plant 

 for a few days and frozen. If these frozen roots are stored in a 

 common cellar or basement room having a temperature of 40 or 

 45 F., strong leafstalks will develop with a minimum leaf blade. 

 This plan requires less equipment than the first, and while it does 

 not give as desirable a product as the forcing-house method, a large 

 part of the first rhubarb to be offered on the market during the 

 winter is grown in this way. Light is not essential to the produc- 

 tion of leafstalks and small blades, but only strong, vigorous roots 

 will give satisfactory results without light. Leafstalks grown in the 

 dark are long and slender in comparison with those grown in the 

 light, either in the open or in the forcing house. 



Harvesting. The part of the rhubarb plant used commercially is 

 the thick leafstalk, which carries a broad blade at its summit. In 

 marketing the crop it is customary to pull rather than cut the 

 leaves from the plant. By a slight lateral motion and, at the same 

 time, a sharp pull, the leaves will be separated from the crown of 

 the plant without much injury to it, and in this way no portion 

 of the base of the leafstalk is left to decay over the crown. 

 A smooth wound, which readily heals, is left. The greater part 

 of the leaf blade is usually removed before sending the leafstalk 

 to market. This is a good practice in that it lessens evaporation, 

 and the leafstalks remain in a tense condition much longer than 

 they would if the whole blade of the leaf were left intact. The 

 leafstalks are usually tied in bundles of from four to ten, de- 

 pending upon the season of the year and the size and length of 

 the stalks. 



Marketing. Rhubarb is always marketed in bunches, which are 

 sometimes disposed of by weight but more often by the bunch or 

 by the dozen stalks, markets varying considerably in such customs. 

 Three stalks usually constitute a bunch of early rhubarb. 



