Rhubarb - Continuing Care and Harvesting

!±8± Rhubarb - Continuing Care and Harvesting

Note: Rhubarb leaves are toxic, so never eat them. The stalks are awesome, so eat them as much as possible. One cup of chopped rhubarb stalks contains 13 percent of your daily value of vitamin C and a whopping 68 percent of your DV of vitamin K. It also contains significant calcium, manganese and potassium.

Rhubarb may be low-maintenance, but it does require food and water. Make sure your rhubarb does not dry out during hot weather. As the years go by, your soil may lose some of its water-holding capability, in which case you should dig the rhubarb up in the spring, amend the soil, divide, and re-transplant.

Food and Water, Please

Each spring work one cup of 10-10-10 fertilizer into the soil around each plant, down to a depth of about six inches. Use a small spade or your fingers so you don't disturb the roots.

As with most perennials, a good watering right at first frost will do wonders to preserve the roots through the winter.

After first or second frost but before snow, clean the leftover leaves away from the plant. Top dress with well-rotted manure in a nice 3-inch layer. Extend the top dressing in a circle approximately the diameter of the full-grown summer crown. Add 6 inches of straw mulch and let it rest through the winter.

Mulch is your friend! That said established rhubarb will hardly feel the competition. Mulching in this case would depend on how well your soil holds water and how many weeds grow up around the rhubarb.

Harvesting

The harvesting period for rhubarb extends throughout the spring and early summer until June or July. The leafstalks have maximum color, flavor, and tenderness in early spring.

Rhubarb should not be heavily harvested until the third year after planting. However, a limited number of leafstalks may be pulled the second year.

Plants will produce flower stalks each season and these should be cut as soon as they appear.

Cut the leaves off the harvested stalks because they are toxic. Throw leaves in the compost pile and they will lose their toxicity and become wonderful compost for your next transplants.

We recommend the Valentine variety because we've found it to be productive and delicious. There are several varieties, so plant one of each and do a test yourself about which one you like best. Now there's a yummy test!

For another article on Transplanting and First Year's Care of rhubarb, or to learn all about the fascinating subject of compost, check my Author Profile. Thanks for stopping by!

Rhubarb - Continuing Care and Harvesting

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Soilsaver Classic Composter

!±8± Soilsaver Classic Composter

Brand : Soilsaver Classic Composter | Rate : | Price : $87.99
Post Date : Dec 22, 2011 10:32:07 | Usually ships in 1-2 business days

Soilsaver Classic Composter

SoilSavers Compost Bin saves money by reducing landfill cost, hauling cost and curbside pickup and can recycle up to 30% of your household waste. It produces rich organic soil for healthier plants and gardens. Now you can do your part to not only help the environment, but also your family with the SoilSaver.Soil produced is natures' own fertilizer & soil conditioner Includes free composting guide "A Sense of Humus"

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Sun-Mar 200 50-Gallon Rotating Compost Bin

!±8± Sun-Mar 200 50-Gallon Rotating Compost Bin

Brand : Sun | Rate : | Price : $299.99
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Sun-Mar 200 50-Gallon Rotating Compost Bin

The Sun-Mar 200 is a continuous composter with a 6 bushel (50 gallon) capacity. It is excellent for composting kitchen scraps and a few cut up garden trimmings. Compost discharges automatically. No waiting for batches to finish. Pest resistant. Easy to load and turn. Sun-Mar composters go a step further by incorporating the Sun-Mar patented double drum Autoflow design. In the Autoflow design, material goes in the top and compost exits automatically out the end as the drum rotates.

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Homemade Compost Bins - How to Build a Compost Tumbler

!±8± Homemade Compost Bins - How to Build a Compost Tumbler

Not everyone is privileged of having his or her own compost pile in their backyard, so I'm going to discuss some info on how homemade compost bins are done and how to compost in a garbage container.
Composting is not as hard and as expensive as it looks - not like what we see on TV and those catalogue for organic gardening tools.

Oftentimes, people believe that they should have the proper organic gardening supplies in order to do composting perfectly. Some examples of these are those fancy compost bins like rotating barrel composter, compost tumbler and aerator tools that are currently introduced to us by different manufacturers.

However, the truth is, with just a little dose of creativity and resourcefulness, we would be able find these tools and materials right at our very home.

If you don't have the money and the resources for organic gardening materials, then, hanging on to the "recycling" idea is a perfect start. Keep in mind that the best compost bins are homemade.

Let's look at the steps on how to make a composter out of a garbage can.

A recycled garbage container, for example, makes a wonderful composter for home use. You can use any simple or old garbage can that you are no longer using inside your home.

Puncture enough holes so that air gets into the compost materials. Oxygen is essential in the composting process so you need to put enough holes in order to give way for air circulation inside your bin. You can simply do this by using a nail and a hammer to create the holes. Giving way to oxygen is also the same reason for using a compost aerator. In this case, organic gardeners use compost or lawn aerators like the Winged Compost Aerator which mixes and turns compost materials.

Now, you'll need to use two types of materials to mix inside your compost bin. 50% of your compost should consist of dry materials (aka brown materials) which can be newspapers, cardboards and wood shavings. These materials are rich in carbon which is good in composting when combined with nitrogen rich materials. Nitrogen rich materials that are used in compost bins are also called "green materials". 50% of your compost should be green materials - fruit peels, coffee grinds, tea bags, grass and weeds are good examples of nitrogen rich matter.

Fill in your compost bin with alternating layers of brown and green materials in equal proportions. You can add more materials throughout the composting process.

It's also important to keep your materials moist so that if it dries, you can just take your watering can and water it to add some moisture.

Seal it properly using the garbage container's lid and turn or roll it on the ground to make sure that the materials are properly mixed. Roll your bin at least once a week and maintain its moisture for a continuous composting process.

Provided you followed these steps and maintained the moist and turning of your compost bin, your compost will be ready for harvesting in a month or two.

This is not only fun and interesting, but being able to save money and the environment all at the same time are only some of the advantages and heroic deeds that you will be accomplishing once you're compost bin is "up and running". I trust that these useful tips on how to build a compost tumbler will help you start your own homemade compost bins in no time!

Homemade Compost Bins - How to Build a Compost Tumbler

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