"... how do you encourage best crop ?" My mother's apple tree had a blight last summer and a lot of apples "fell". I piled them on the sides of the rhubarb patch and the taste of the rhubarb is unreal... I ate a small stalk this afternoon with no sugar and, although still slightly tart, it was delicious. Now, my neighbour swears by leaves raked up in the fall - he loads them on. As well, he has a compost just a few feet away on the uphill side. One of the stalks last year was as big as my wrist (which might be funny if you read a certain post in another thread).