The first time I needed to know how to get rid of rhubarb, I went about it all wrong. And that rhubarb plant was still haunting me the following summer, despite the fact I was trying to grow new plants practically on top of it! To get rhubarb removal right, you need to make sure its crown is dead, or gone. There are several ways of achieving this, and each technique comes with its own pros and cons. So if it’s time for your rhubarb to make space for something else, here are your options, and how to choose between them.
Rhubarb is a hardy perennial plant that is easy to grow and produces tasty stalks that can be used in a variety of sweet and savory dishes. However, rhubarb can also become weedy and spread aggressively. If you have too much rhubarb or want to get rid of it completely, there are several effective methods you can use
Why Rhubarb Gets Out of Control
Rhubarb grows from a crown – a dense cluster of buds that sits just below the soil surface. The crown continuously produces new shoots and stores energy over winter to fuel growth in spring. In ideal conditions a single mature rhubarb crown can spread over 2 feet wide. This allows a few starter plants to expand into a large dense patch.
Here are some key reasons rhubarb can get out of control
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Vigorous Growth: Given adequate sunlight, water and nutrients, rhubarb grows vigorously and spreads via its root system.
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Self-Seeding: Occasionally rhubarb will flower and produce seeds. New plants can sprout from seeds scattered in the garden.
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Division: Dividing crowns every 3-5 years keeps plants productive but also multiplies them.
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Lack of Containment: Rhubarb grown in open beds with no barriers will spread unchecked.
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Limited Uses: A few plants can quickly provide more rhubarb than a household can use.
How to Get Rid of Rhubarb
If your rhubarb has gotten too large or you want to eliminate it, here are proven methods to get rid of it for good:
Digging Out the Roots
Digging up the entire rhubarb plant is the most effective removal method. Use a garden fork to loosen the soil and lift out the roots. Be sure to remove all parts of the crown or new shoots may re-sprout from remnants left behind. Digging works best in spring when the soil is moist and roots are actively growing.
Pros:
- Removes the entire plant
- Immediate and permanent results
Cons:
- Labor intensive digging
- Disturbs surrounding plants
Repeated Cutting
You can weaken rhubarb by repeatedly cutting back all new shoots as soon as they appear. Do this continuously through spring and summer to deplete the plant’s energy stores. Combine with mulch applied over the crown to further weaken it.
Pros:
- Non-chemical method
- Minimal work per cutting
Cons:
- Must be done persistently over months
- Regrowth likely, multiple seasons may be needed
Smothering
Smother rhubarb by covering the crown with 4-6 inches of mulch, compost or other organic matter. This cuts off light and suppresses new growth. For best results, mulch in fall to maintain cover all winter.
Pros:
- Simple and non-chemical
- Improves soil as materials break down
Cons:
- May take several months to fully kill
- Some growth may still emerge
Herbicides
Non-selective herbicides containing glyphosate or diquat can be sprayed directly on rhubarb leaves to kill the plant. Avoid drift onto desired plants.
Pros:
- Quick and effective kill
- Low labor
Cons:
- Chemical exposure risk
- Also kills surrounding plants
- Leaves dead plants to be removed
Tips for Successful Rhubarb Removal
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Remove all root fragments and water sprouts to prevent regrowth. Monitor area for new sprouts.
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Combine cutting and mulching for best results.
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Replant area with competitive plants like grasses to prevent re-infestation.
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Solarize soil using clear plastic to heat kill roots and seeds.
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Don’t dump removed plant materials in compost, as rhizomes may re-sprout. Discard with trash.
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Be patient! It may take months or years to fully eradicate a large rhubarb patch. Persistence pays off.
What to Do With Removed Rhubarb
If you’ve dug up or cut back unwanted rhubarb, here are suggestions for the plant material:
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Offer crowns or root divisions to gardening friends or community gardens.
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Chop up roots and add to hot compost pile to break down completely.
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Discard as trash, especially any root parts that may re-sprout. Do not compost.
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Explore making food products like jams, sauces or pies before discarding excess stems.
Rhubarb’s vigorous growth habit can quickly lead to more plants than you need or want. But with determination and persistence, you can get rid of rhubarb for good. Use cultural methods like repeated cutting and mulching for an eco-friendly approach, or turn to herbicides for quick control. Just don’t dump unwanted plant parts anywhere they could spread further! With the right techniques and some patience, you can reclaim your garden space for more desirable plants.
How to get rid of rhubarb
There are four ways of purging rhubarb from your yard:
- Dig out the crown
- Smother it with mulch
- Keeping cutting it back hard
- Kill it with herbicide
The single most effective and reliable way to eliminate rhubarb is to dig out the crown. Rhubarb grows from its crown, so removing this part of the plant entirely means the end of it. Provided all of the crown is removed, then even if stem or root fragments are left behind in the soil, you don’t need to fear an unwanted resurgence of red stalks next year.
That’s the good news about this method. The bad news is that it is by far the most physically arduous of all the methods for eliminating rhubarb. The crown of an established plant is only a shallow structure, but it is securely anchored into the soil below it by lots of strong roots. And finding the outermost edge of the crown just under the surface of the soil may require some trial and error with a gardening fork. If the crown of your plant is very large, try digging it up in fragments by driving a sharp spade or lawn edger through it. The best time of year to use this technique is in spring, when you can see the full outline of the crown by the emergence of new stems.
Pros of digging out unwanted rhubarb:
- Immediate results.
- The lifted crowns can be replanted somewhere more suitable, or offered to friends.
Cons of digging out unwanted rhubarb:
- Physically hard work.
- Requires full sized tools.
- May not be suitable if there are other plants close by, which could get damaged.
If you’re unable to dispose of your rhubarb by digging it up, an alternative is smothering it with compost. For rhubarb to grow strongly, the crown needs to sit just a scant inch below the surface of the soil. Usually when you apply a mulch of compost in spring to add nutrients back into the soil, it’s important to mulch around the crown, and not on top of it. Burying the crown under a thick layer of mulch can cause it to rot, and die. So, applying 4 to 6 inches of mulch to an out-of-place rhubarb is likely to see it off for good, especially if you apply it in fall so that it’s kept nice and wet by the winter weather
Pros of smothering unwanted rhubarb:
- The effort required is relatively little.
- All that compost will make the ground extra fertile for whatever you grow there next.
Cons of smothering unwanted rhubarb:
- A vigorous plant might grow through the mulch anyway.
- Even if the crown dies quickly, a particularly dense crown might take a few years to break down completely. In the meantime it could interfere with the root growth of anything you plant on top of it.
Why rhubarb gets out of control
I never expected to need to know how to get rid of rhubarb. It’s one of my favorite crops – growing away with minimal fuss or input each year, and filling endless summer desserts. But then I discovered what a thug rhubarb can be. Four years after planting them, I had a thicket of red stems that far exceeded my expectations.
Rhubarb plants grow from crowns – dense, fibrous structures that sit just below the surface of the soil and produce stems from the top, and roots from the bottom. The function of the crown is to store energy while the plant is dormant in winter, in order to fuel new growth in spring. In favorable growing conditions, a single rhubarb crown can extend over two feet in diameter. Which is how a compact young plant can turn into a sprawling mature one, that overreaches the space allocated to it.
In fact, wanting to jettison some rhubarb from a fruit and veg garden quite often has nothing to do with not liking rhubarb, and everything to do with not wanting that much rhubarb. It’s not unusual to plant 5 or 6 crowns, and realize you only need the stems of 2 or 3 once they’re fully established!
So whether you’re getting rid of rhubarb because you have too many plants, or because you don’t want any at all, here’s how to go about it.
Why You Should Remove Rhubarb Flower Stalks
FAQ
How to permanently get rid of rhubarb?
Herbicide can also be applied or injected into cut stems. Excavation of the plant is a complete solution but all parts of the above and below ground plant needs to be removed. As the plant waste is deemed as special ‘controlled waste’ it will need to be taken to a suitably licensed landfill.
How to stop rhubarb from spreading?
Dig it up, give it away, boiling water on the remaining exposed roots. Repeat as necessary. It may take 2-3 rounds. Boiling water on underground roots stops the spread. So many people would love the rhubarb you hate, so please give it away!
Why do you put a bucket over rhubarb?
Putting a bucket or other container over rhubarb is a technique called “forcing,” which encourages the plant to produce earlier, sweeter, and more tender stems. By excluding light and trapping heat, forcing causes the rhubarb to grow rapidly towards the light source, resulting in pale, elongated stalks.