Rhubarb in a large container ? Vanc BC

i am about to embark on a rhubarb experiment with a very large container at the mainland coast BC

And well-drained (recycled) soil from a container that has broken

And a big chunk of rhubarb from a farm friend who divided

I am very accustomed to growing rhubarb in the ground with plenty of well-rotted sheep manure etc

And I have a « jar » a friend made for me simply by cutting bottom out of a large plastic pot to resemble the terra cotta English UK garden antique

So we shall see !

QUESTION - has anyone done rhubarb in a large container with success?

Our fellow contributors from England? @Acerholic
Vancouver Island? @Margot
Lower Mainland?
Anyone else of course

(The reason I want it in a container is because I expect (when lumber prices go down ) ... I can have some renovation on building next to garden etc — indeed, a sloped lot has a great view tho no real area to do garden beds for food use - so I experiment with big containers - and limited sun in the east facing forest - kind of discouraging but fun to try )

 

Rhubarb is growing easily everywhere, even on slopes. It is very undemanding for growing conditions, except it needs pretty deep soil. You can easily grow it in the container, if it is deep enough. I grow rhubarbs both in poor sand and fertile clay loam, and from time to time need to dig up some plants to share with someone who wants to begin growing it too. Both cases its roots go easily more than 1m deep. So better your container has to be at least 50 cm tall. I don't amend soil for rhubarb at all. Even on poor sand they grow very vigorously.

 

Rhubarb on a poor soil, without any fertilizers:

 

How cold temperature is your winter?

With snow?

And then around now I’m May do you start summer?

 

This winter started here relatively late, in December, record low was -30°C. Below -20°C temperatures were here ca 10 days, that is relatively short period, we have had 30+ below -20°C days during previous winters. There was plenty of snow too, but rhubarb never suffers from winter cold. It has happened sometimes, that late frosts damage it, if April has several warm days, following with strong frost. This spring has been cooler than average, so my rhubarbs are a bit behind.
I made this photo few hours ago, tonight it was risk for night frost, so I woke up early (3:30 AM) to check if I have to take some emergency measures to protect my beans and potatoes from frost bite. Fortunately temps were still slightly above the freezing point. Yesterday I planted my melons into my melon tent, this frost prediction came a bit of as a surprise for me, after I had fixed my delicate melons into the ground. But we have had late frosts until June 24, sometimes even in July.
You can see graph of our last weeks temperatures from Past Weather in Tallinn, Estonia — Yesterday or Further Back
Two weeks ago my rhubarbs look like that:

 

We have cherry blossom time now. Actually cherries are about to finish blooming already, but plums and pears are in full blossom and apples are just about starting. We had a short hot wave 2 weeks ago, but otherwise there has no summer warmth here. Next week is predicted to be another miserable rainy and cold. So no summer so soon.

 

Well you are a dedicated plant parent waking at 330am

I have done similar here nr ocean Vancouver because In winter, we get sudden outflow high pressure cold down what I think in Northern Europe Norway would be called fjord

I hope you can post some photos of your cherry blossom and apple blossom etc

I would enjoy seeing them — I am in an area that used to be fruit orchards for food — now they ripped out the trees for wine grapes because it is (I suppose) someone dream to have a « winery » in Kelowna, BC Canada — thé region called Okanagan

Thé ornamental blossom tree are finished for this year here at the coast near Vancouver BC

Thank you for your help and I shall look up your country name to understand more of the climate

I sounds a bit like Edmonton Alberta Canada climate

Thank you and I will keep an update on this rhubarb project

 

Another thing about growing rhubarb in containers - because of deep root system my rhubarbs hardly need any watering, but in containers you should probably water them often, as they will loose pretty large amount of water through their large leaves, especially during dry spell.
the photo is offtopic, two of my largest cherries on their second day of blooming:

 

Hi @Georgia Strait - when we moved in here, there was a very happy, large red rhubarb plant growing in what was formerly a compost bin . . . a large container you could say. I took it out, divided it and put it in the garden as a sort of ornamental where it provides all the rhubarb we need, ie. not much. You've nothing to lose by trying your rhubarb experiment. It is a tough plant and should at least survive until you can put it is a larger space.

This brings to mind my next door neighbour when we lived in Burnaby who had a rhubarb 'hedge' at least 30 feet long and about 3 feet high. Quite unique, wouldn't you agree?

 

My summer temps are pretty similar to Vancouver, but summer is shorter here and winter is colder. Our winters here are still milder than in Edmonton, if to believe the Weatherspark:
Comparison of the Average Weather in Tallinn, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Tartu - Weather Spark
Temperatures in my location are more like the Tartu graph on that link, because I am not so close to the sea as the weather station, that records temperatures for Tallinn.

 

Hello Sulev - are your cherry trees (in photo above) ornamental or wild native or for fruit you (or the bears) harvest

Are they sweet cherries or sour cherries?

Do you have ornamental cherries (the ones people here often call “Japanese” cherry trees in your gardens and along the streets of your neighbourhood ?

Just curious

And
Thank you for your rhubarb suggestions

@wcutler - did you see Sulev’s photo of N European cherry blossoms, above ?

 

Yes, I saw it. I assume it's a fruit-bearing cherry.

 

These cherries are fruit bearing sweet cherries (Prunus avium), but birds take all their harvest, so these trees are more like for ornamental purposes for me. There were years in the past, when I harvested few buckets of cherries per tree of them, but now there are so many blackbirds and their grey sisters (fieldfares), that they take all berries before they even get ripe. I get only handful of cherries of them.
I have some sour cherries (Prunus cerasus), some sand cherries (Prunus besseyi) and some Nanking cherries (Prunus tomentosa), that produce some harvest for me (birds are not crazy about their berries). And one smaller multi-crafted sweet franken-cherry, that I can protect from birds to collect harvest by myself.
AFAIK, Japanese ornamental cherries are too tender for our winters. In the Japanese garden in Kadriorg Park there may be some ornamental cherries, but they are very close to the sea and there winters are significantly milder than here. And I am not very sure, if they are Japanese ornamental cherries at all, usually I have too busy to visit this garden when there is cherry blossom time. I will drive by this park today when going sailing, maybe I can check, what is the situation there, but it depends how long I will spend on sea.