Rhubarb
Rhubarb is also a long-standing culture that has been growing in one place for many years, annually increasing a large above-ground part, which consumes a lot of nutrients.
The thickest and longest petioles give the Baltic varieties: Ogre, Ogras 13, and also our varieties: Stubborn( most resistant to rifling), Dawn( red petals, tender, they can not peel skin), Obsky.
Before planting a rhubarb, it is necessary to excavate a pit of 60 x 60 x 60 cm and fill it with organic soil. In fact, the rhubarb requires a power area of 1 x 1.5 m. You plant a rhubarb for many years, so do not be stingy. On scant soil and rhubarb will be scarce.
He prefers weakly acidic soils, but will also grow on acidic soils. He loves the sun, but he tolerates with penumbra. When planting the kidney is not buried in the soil, landing should be done so that the kidney was visible( like a heart of strawberries).It is necessary to take from a good 4-5-year-old specimen a piece of a young rhizome with a kidney from the peripheral part of the rhizome and plant it on a prepared place. Planting a rhubarb is best at the end of August. If there is dry weather, then water the first time after planting. Such a plant will not produce a flower arrow for a long time. It is better to plant the dug out piece of rhizome not immediately, but first slightly to podvyatit. Sprinkle all the sections with crushed coal.
Do not take the planting material close to the center - the plants will quickly bloom. Do not take the planting material from the old bush for reproduction, since the planted plants will quickly bloom. Quickly bloom and plants for which you took a piece of rhizome with a lot of kidneys. The flower arrow must be cut as early as possible without leaving a hemp. If the plant tries to bloom all the time, it is old and should be replaced.
With late autumn plantings, the rhubarb may not have time to take root, and it will be swept out of the ground. In spring, be sure to check and if the kidney is too crawled out of the soil, deepen it, otherwise it can dry out. Rhubarb - the plant is frost-hardy, it does not freeze, but can rot from moisture or burn with too long winter thaws.
Rhubarb begins to grow even before the soil has warmed up. If you cover the bush in the snow, you can get high vitamin production very early. Old leaves must be removed and placed in compost. In dry weather, rhubarb should be watered at least occasionally. Feed it only organic( bucket under the bush in autumn).In autumn it is necessary to remove all remnants of rhubarb to avoid disease. If the leaves of the rhubarb reddened and withered - this is a fungal disease. You can pour a bush with a pink solution of potassium permanganate or "Fitosporin".
There is a misconception that rhubarb can be used only in the spring, and in the second half of summer it is impossible, especially after flowering. This is not true. Petioles of young( but not old!) Leaves can be eaten all summer and even in autumn. They contain pectins and useful acids: ascorbic, lemon, apple;There is little harmful oxalic acid in them. Oxalic acid accumulates in the petioles of the old leaves.
The leaves are not used for food. Leaves with petioles must be broken off carefully, so as not to damage the buds of renewal. On the underside of the petiole is a thin film, it should not be torn off. On top of the leaf from the petiole must be cut so that a little part of the stalk remains. This part of the leaf and the film from the bottom of the cuttings quickly fade and will block the petiole from above and below. It will not fade for a long time and will be well preserved.
From rhubarb prepare jelly, fruit drinks, compotes, wine, bake pies with it, cook jam.
The stalks intended for cooking are not peeled. In early spring, while there are no berries, the rhubarb should be simply cut, covered with sugar and used fresh. The most delicious spring pies are oxalic and rhubarb. To taste just like apple.
There is an opinion that the rhubarb is laxative, generally speaking, it is not so, it only softens the stool, and the laxative is prepared from a rhizome rhubarb of a completely different species.