Late-season rhubarb surprises Maine gardeners
The rhubarb harvest is overlapping with the start of the blueberry season.
Gardeners around Maine have taken to social media recently with posts and photos of rhubarb ready for harvest, surprised to see it happening this far into summer. Some are even making rhubarb-blueberry crisps for the first time.
While it might seem unusual, experts said that the rhubarb harvest doesn’t necessarily end when we think it does.
“I suspect people were surprised to see their [rhubarb] plants pushing mid-season growth,” said Kate Garland, horticulturist with University of Maine Cooperative Extension.
Garland said the idea among gardeners that rhubarb is done producing viable stalks in early July likely comes from misinformation that has been passed down for generations.
“[The lore is] part of the tradition of what people learned from people before them,” she said.
You never want to harvest all of your rhubarb in a single season. Garland recommends leaving half of it behind. It’s also a good idea to keep the bulk of that harvesting early in the season, you can still harvest rhubarb in August, Garland said.
“You can harvest it into August as long as you harvest just a little bit at a time,” Garland said.
Doing so leaves the plant with enough remaining growth and strong enough to overwinter and put out new growth the next season.
Overall, it’s been a pretty confusing year when it comes to growing things in Maine thanks to a series of extreme and record weather events.
It started last fall when record warm temperatures in November caused plants to sprout and buds opening on fruit trees long after they should have been in winter dormancy.
In April, temperatures again shot up high enough that some plants and trees began putting out new growth weeks ahead of schedule and before danger of crop-killing overnight frosts were over.
June turned into one of the state’s rainiest on record. Root crop seeds were either washed away before they had a chance to germinate or were stunted due to the soggy conditions. Pick-your-own berry farms reported good yields, but the constant rain kept pickers away. Meanwhile, the rain favored garden pests like slugs which were munching their way through gardens.
By the time July rolled around, things were heating up as temperatures and humidity levels were high. It made for some uncomfortable days for gardeners but their plants were loving it right into August. Which brings us to the rhubarb.
The weather has also favored plants that have already had stalks harvested.
“Most healthy perennials, including rhubarb, that are fully cut back will generally regrow by mid-season,” Garland said. “It’s not a recommended practice to harvest rhubarb like this — I don’t want to encourage a lot of late-season harvest, but into August is fine.”