Late-season rhubarb surprises Maine gardeners
The rhubarb harvest is overlapping with the beginning of the blueberry season.
Gardeners round Maine have taken to social media lately with posts and photographs of rhubarb prepared for harvest, stunned to see it taking place this far into summer time. Some are even making rhubarb-blueberry crisps for the primary time.
Whereas it may appear uncommon, specialists mentioned that the rhubarb harvest doesn’t essentially finish after we assume it does.
“I believe folks had been stunned to see their [rhubarb] vegetation pushing mid-season progress,” mentioned Kate Garland, horticulturist with College of Maine Cooperative Extension.
Garland mentioned the thought amongst gardeners that rhubarb is finished producing viable stalks in early July possible comes from misinformation that has been handed down for generations.
“[The lore is] a part of the custom of what folks realized from folks earlier than them,” she mentioned.
You by no means wish to harvest your whole rhubarb in a single season. Garland recommends leaving half of it behind. It’s additionally a good suggestion to maintain the majority of that harvesting early within the season, you possibly can nonetheless harvest rhubarb in August, Garland mentioned.
“You possibly can harvest it into August so long as you harvest just a bit bit at a time,” Garland mentioned.
Doing so leaves the plant with sufficient remaining progress and powerful sufficient to overwinter and put out new progress the subsequent season.
Total, it’s been a fairly complicated 12 months on the subject of rising issues in Maine due to a sequence of maximum and document climate occasions.
It began final fall when document heat temperatures in November precipitated vegetation to sprout and buds opening on fruit bushes lengthy after they need to have been in winter dormancy.
In April, temperatures once more shot up excessive sufficient that some vegetation and bushes started placing out new progress weeks forward of schedule and earlier than hazard of crop-killing in a single day frosts had been over.
June was one of many state’s rainiest on document. Root crop seeds had been both washed away earlier than they’d an opportunity to germinate or had been stunted because of the soggy situations. Decide-your-own berry farms reported good yields, however the fixed rain stored pickers away. In the meantime, the rain favored backyard pests like slugs which had been munching their method by way of gardens.
By the point July rolled round, issues had been heating up as temperatures and humidity ranges had been excessive. It made for some uncomfortable days for gardeners however their vegetation had been loving it proper into August. Which brings us to the rhubarb.
The climate has additionally favored vegetation which have already had stalks harvested.
“Most wholesome perennials, together with rhubarb, which are totally reduce will usually regrow by mid-season,” Garland mentioned. “It’s not a really useful follow to reap rhubarb like this — I don’t wish to encourage loads of late-season harvest, however into August is ok.”
