Have you had your rhubarb for several years?
Was the weather unusually warm?
Did your rhubarb experience stress in the form of a lack of water, pests, diseases, lack of nutrients, or animal damage?
Plants need to reach a certain maturity to reproduce through seed. For a rhubarb plant, that maturity comes a few years after it is planted. The older a rhubarb plant is, the more the rhubarb goes to seed. You should divide the clump of your rhubarb which will essentially rejuvenate them.
Rhubarb plants grow best in cooler temperatures. If you have an unusually warm spring, this can cause a rhubarb to start flowering and producing seed. If you are expecting a warm spell, consider mulching around the plant to help keep the roots cool.
Stress can force a rhubarb to flower. Anything that makes the plant feel threatened can cause it to start flowering. Make sure that your rhubarb is as stress-free as possible. Watering during dry spells, regular fertilizing, and keeping an eye out for and quickly treating pests and disease will greatly reduce the amount of flowering.
Some varieties of rhubarb flower more than others. Heirloom varieties tend to flower more than modern cultivars. Victoria rhubarb, MacDonald rhubarb, and Red Crimson rhubarb are some examples of rhubarb varieties that will flower more often. There is nothing you can do about it, except swapping them with some modern variety that's not prone to flowering.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/vegetables/rhubarb/rhubarb-bolting.htm
https://www.daringgourmet.com/rhubarb-flowers-what-to-do-when-rhubarb-bolts-and-goes-to-seed/
Sreten null
Hi! I’m Sreten Filipović. I graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Belgrade, with a master's degree in Environmental Protection in Agricultural Systems. I’ve worked as a researcher at Finland's Natural Resources Institute (LUKE) on a project aimed at adapting south-western Finland to drought episodes. I founded a consulting agency in the field of environment and agriculture to help farmers who want to implement the principles of sustainability on their farms. I’m also a founding member of the nonprofit organization Ecogenesis from Belgrade whose main goal is non-formal education on the environment and ecology. In my spare time, I like to write blog posts about sustainability, the environment, animal farming, horticulture, and plant protection. I’ve also published several science-fiction short stories.
You can find me on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sreten-filipovi%C4%87-515aa5158/
