Vegetables · Perennial
Rhubarb
Polygonaceae
At a glance
- Plant spacing
- 100 cm
- USDA zones
- 3a–8b
- Frost-sensitive
- no
- Growth duration
- 5 weeks
Which beds suit?
- Sun (prefers)
- full sunAlso okay:partial shade
- Soil (prefers)
- clayAlso okay:loamy
- Drainage (prefers)
- normal
Seed & start
Perennial
Plant once, returns every year.
Stachi's tip
Rhubarb is perennial (10+ years in one spot) — choose the location carefully. Heavyweight plant: 1 m² per crown. Don't harvest in year 1, and stop in July (oxalic acid builds up).
The plant's year: sowing, transplanting, harvest
Sowing
No sowing weeks recorded.
Transplanting
Harvest
Good neighbours
No fixed companion partners — easy to mix.
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Avoid these neighbours
No known conflicts.
Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Good pre-cultures
Stachi has no specific pre-cultures recorded.
Sources
- LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review
- LLM-Baseline-Intercrop
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer
- LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage
- Bayerische Gartenakademie (LWG) – Merkblatt 2176 Rhabarber (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/mam/cms06/gartenakademie/dateien/infoschrift_rhabarber.pdf)
Where these figures come from
- Timing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Spacing
- Horticulturally established — consistent across the cited standard works.
- Companion planting
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Crop rotation
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
- Yield
- Limited evidence. This value is not backed by a specialist source — treat it as a pointer.
Sources: LLM-Baseline+gpt-5-review · LLM-Baseline-Intercrop · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-09 yieldKg · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 family-zehrer · LLM-Baseline-2026-05-10 sun-soil-drainage · Bayerische Gartenakademie (LWG) – Merkblatt 2176 Rhabarber (https://www.lwg.bayern.de/mam/cms06/gartenakademie/dateien/infoschrift_rhabarber.pdf)
Articles about this plant
Fallen leaves in your raised bed: the best winter blanket that costs nothing
While the neighbours stuff their leaves into bags for the green-waste collection, mine all go straight into the raised bed. Three ways to turn fallen leaves into winter protection, mulch, or fine humus for next year.
Dividing rhubarb now: how to get thick stalks back from a tired old crown
After five or six years, rhubarb stalks get noticeably thinner — not because something's wrong, but because the crown has outgrown itself. Right now, in October, is the best time to divide it and replant.
Products mentioned in this post
- Plantura organic tomato seed set (10 varieties)Open-pollinated, good germination — robust for raised beds.
- Organic tomato seed set, 14 varieties
- Organic heirloom tomato seed set (Demeter, 12 varieties)
- Organic vegetable seed set, 10 varietiesCucumber, tomato, beetroot, broccoli, carrot, chard & more.