How to Trim Rhubarb

The emergence of rhubarb (Rheum x cultorum or Rheum rhabarbarum) in spring is often especially welcome, as this plant, a perennial in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 3 to 8, is one of the first garden plants ready for harvest. The edible portion of the rhubarb is actually the leaf stalks, or petioles -- the rhubarb leaves contain oxalic acid, which is toxic. Correctly trimming a prized rhubarb plant will help to ensure its productivity year after year.

Sharp knife

Instructions

- 1
  Remove stalks for harvest by bending them to the side near ground level until they crisply snap or cut them off as near to soil level as possible using a sharp, clean knife. Never harvest more than about one-third of the rhubarb plant's leaf stalks at a time to avoid depleting the rhubarb's reserves.
- 2
  Cut or break the leaves off of the leaf stalks immediately after harvest.
- 3
  Cut off any flower stalks where they emerge from near the base of the plant as soon as they appear. This extends the harvesting season and encourages plentiful vegetative growth the following year. Flower stalks are rounder and thicker than the vegetable stalks and appear growing out of the center of the rhubarb clump. Left to grow, they become taller than the rhubarb leaves and have recognizable flowering parts.
- 4
  Cut the remaining rhubarb stems off at ground level once the plant begins to wilt in fall or after the first frost or freeze kills the plant back.

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