Its OK to move it now. Rhubarb is very hardy and prolific. Just prepare the new location with a little bone meal and maybe a little fertilizer mixed in to the soil. Water a few times after transplanting. At this point, most rhubarb is starting to go dormant anyways

thanks for the info!

Hi, I recently bought Rhubarb on ebay. Never having planted it before, are there any hints? I planned on digging a hole then mulching heavily for the winter here in NY. I would appreciate any advice. TY

My rhubarb came with the house and I have found it to be invincible. My landscapers cut it down by accident below grade and it still came back strong (even with the brutal winter last year) Just drop it in a hole, water well next season and enjoy some rhubarb pie, sorbet, etc.

Yes, as I wrote before rhubarb is very hardy and prolific in all zones. When planting, add a little peat moss as well as some bone meal to the soil. If its been established for some time and your digging it up to move it, be sure to seperate any new crowns as they are also going to give you good plants later on. They do love rich soil and the stems will increase in diameter when you apply a good fertilizer in very early spring before they start to send up leaves. Any flower heads should be cut off as these tend to take away from the plants stems.

Rhubarb is a heavy feeder, liking nitrogen. I usually dump a wheelbarrow or three on my rhubarb bed in the fall, and each year it produces well- in full shade!

Rhubarb neds no winter protection as its quite hardy even down to zone 3. If you pile on mulch for the winter, it can rot the rhubarb crowns. Someone did this last year and lost all of what they planted.

Once the rhubarb has been moved, I am told that I should not pick the fruit for the first season. is that true please?

If the stems are narrow or short, they do need to be kept growing another year. The size of the original crowns will usually govern the size of the stems. If the crowns are large, and more than 6 inches in diameter, the stems might be about an inch in diameter this coming summer. All this depends on how well they are fertilized too. I used a product called 'Root Blast' on some of mine and they grew very large leaves and stems, but it did take a few years to get to that size. Some were even growing in shallow soil that had a big rocky ledge just below the soil surface and so the roots were only down about 4-6 inches before hitting the huge boulder under the soil.