The result is pale pink, long, tender stems, with small leaves and a sweet, delicate flavour. (Image: Getty)
Rhubarb is a popular for Britons to grow in domestic . With the right care, it should produce masses of delicious stalks every year.
While only the stalks are edible, as the green leaves are extremely poisonous when ingested, the plant’s contrasting ruby red and green hues make it something to marvel at as it grows taller.
In the UK, rhubarb season is from April to September, but it’s often recommended to stop harvesting in June, or at least only take a few after then, so you don’t weaken the plant.
Avid rhubarb growers who can’t wait to get a taste of the unmistakable flavour of rhubarb can do so by taking on one simple task.
Julie Kendall, Eden Project’s Garden Manager, said, “If you like your rhubarb sweet and tender, now is the time to try forcing it by covering the crowns.”
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Forced rhubarb is not only sweeter, but also finer in texture (Image: Getty)
Just as its name suggests, forcing rhubarb involves getting it to grow earlier and more quickly than it would naturally. February is the perfect month to do so, as most rhubarb plants will have short, fat buds that begin to swell at the base of the crown around this time.
The key to successful forcing is to shut out light, enclose the plant, and increase the ambient temperature. This encourages the stems to grow tall in search of light.
According to a gardening expert-turned-blogger, the Tea Break Gardener, the lack of light also reduces the oxalic acid in the stems.
“Oxalic acid gives rhubarb its sour taste, so forced rhubarb is sweeter than when left to its own devices. The result is pale pink, long, tender stems, with small leaves and a sweet, delicate flavour”, they said.
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Growing and forcing rhubarb is easy with the right method (Image: Getty)
It’s important to force only mature (two to three years old), healthy-looking rhubarb crowns, and you will need one main piece of equipment, a terracotta forcing pot.
These bell-shaped pots cover the rhubarb plant, limiting photosynthesis and encouraging early growth for harvest in late winter.
Forcer pots are easy to find online and in most garden centres. You can even .
If you don’t want to buy a forcer, anything that can be placed over the crown to shut out the light will work. The Tea Break Gardener said: “I use an old chimney pot with a saucer on top, or you could use an old bin or bucket.”
Before forcing rhubarb, removing weeds from the base of the crown and mulch with a thick layer of compost or well-rotted manure is essential to give the crop a nutrient boost.
Next, cover the rhubarb crown to exclude light using your chosen forcing jar. Bins and non-terracotta alternatives are prone to blowing over in strong winds, but placing bricks on top will help prevent this.
Leave your rhubarb to grow once the forcing jar is in place. The Allotment Haven blogger suggested that forced stems will grow quickly; reaching for the light, they will hit the top of the forcing jar lid within six to eight weeks.
The allotment expert said: “Starved of light, the stems will be noticeably different – pale pink with much smaller, bright yellow leaves.”
When it comes to harvesting forced rhubarb, gently pull stems from the base of the crown as you normally would discard the toxic leaves on the compost heap and cook the baby pink stems ready for eating.
It is beneficial to remove the forcing jar after a few weeks of cropping to allow the rhubarb to recover naturally, and the leaves and stems will return to their normal colour once back in the light.