How to Divide & Transplant Rhubarb

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment, we're going to talk about how to divide and transplant rhubarb. Now rhubarb is one of those plants that gives me such wonderful memories. We had a big rhubarb plant right in the front of our house, and we would cut it and mix it with strawberries, and have the most delightful strawberry rhubarb pie. Or our mom would take the rhubarb and she would just boil it down with some water and sugar, until it makes a nice sauce. And it would be, we'd add a little bit of strawberry to that too, or have it without the strawberry, just the rhubarb, and put it on to some ice cream. It tastes just wonderful. So when you have a rhubarb plant, they get really big. They have big celery-like stalks that just take over, and they get big and massive. So, when you're transplanting them, it's almost like a peony or any type of plant that has a big root stalk. As long as you've got some stem and root, it will start a new plant. You don't want to have the roots. Just pieces of roots won't grow, they still need the eyes, so when you're transplanting them, you cut right down the middle, or right to the side and make them into triangles. As long as you've got some of the stem and the root, and then you transplant it right away, it will grow because it don't like to be out of the ground. They dry out real easily. And rhubarb is best to transplant in the fall or the winter, or the early spring when they haven't, or they're not growing and producing the rhubarb stems. And so they do produce the stems towards late summer into fall. So as soon as they're done, or in the spring, then that's the best time to transplant them. And always put them into full sun and make sure they have good composted organic potting soil, or any type of good soil that's going to have good drainage because they don't want to sit in water at all; they'll rot real easily. And again, they need that full, hot sun. And as long as you have even a little piece of that rhubarb stem, with a root, it will reproduce. You can give them to your friends, or put them in different areas of your own yard, and you can enjoy them for many years."