I HAVE just been pulling rhubarb sticks from my favourite clump.
It is growing to perfection between a camellia and the sunny side of a deciduous magnolia.
It has succeeded brilliantly and the flavour is supreme - but don't ask me why.
I can't stand waste. Even the toxic leaves of rhubarb can be put to good use.
My trick is to spread them, overlapping beneath an adjacent apple tree, right up to the trunk.
They are big enough to totally exclude light and air from the coarse grass and weeds that keep wanting to compete for moisture and nutrients with the tree. They suffer a slow death from suffocation.
Sometimes I stuff as many rhubarb leaves as I can into a large soup pot, half-fill it with water and simmer the lot for an hour.
After straining off the liquid, the boiled leaf pulp goes into the compost.
I add a tablespoon of soft soap (or washing up detergent) to the toxic liquid and use it as a very effective spray that instantly kills aphids and small caterpillars.
Apply in the evening when the bees have gone to bed.
The toxicity breaks down and disappears overnight.
But back to rhubarb growing.
Some people have been asking me how to make green rhubarb turn red. Frankly it is impossible.
There is red rhubarb - some varieties such as the tasty Wandin red continue to crop right through winter - and the much more vigorous green varieties, with very thick sticks that die down completely in June then sprout again in late August.
One thing about all rhubarb varieties: it is almost impossible to over-feed them.
Every couple of months I spread around each clump a full bucket of sheep or pulverised cow manure, with plenty of pelletised poultry manure added. And the clumps are watered every few days during summer.
I even give them a special treat by pouring some well-diluted fish emulsion around them occasionally. And crops are massive.
Rhubarb clumps are best divided every three years.
The job is done during winter when plants are close to full dormancy.
An indication that they are due for division is when they start to send up great flower spikes. (I keep cutting these shoots off as fast as they appear).
All rhubarb plants adore a cold winter by the way.
In the sub-tropics crops can be poor, although it helps if dormant crowns are lifted, washed, placed in plastic bags and shoved in the freezer for a couple of weeks before re-planting.
This makes them think they have experienced a cold winter, so in warm districts they crop much better.
Passionfruit vines also crop better if given an occasional pruning.
In cool districts the black Nelly Kelly succeeds best, but after growing about three years, the vines become congested.
They can be pruned with hedge clippers by simply cutting away much of the congested material.
However, make sure the main arms or branches are not cut - just the entangled smaller stuff. Water immediately and new growth appears within a month. For good fruit production - mainly in early winter - plenty of summer watering is essential.
