[johnfh]

This gave a good tasty crop last year and I have just cleared it out ready to plant out fresh veg.  The roots look almost like tubers and I was wondering whether this really is perpetual and would have produced a good crop again in it's second and subsequent years.  Anyone with any experience of this is in this, or any other, veg plant that is normally thought of as an annual only?

[Tiffey Boy]

We've just had just had a nice chicken and spinach curry with spinach cut from last years perpetual spinach, plenty more to eat and it seems to be as good as last year , if you've got the space leave it in. I put a sun tunnel over mine and it is going great guns

[8doubles]

Spinach beet will bolt to 6ft high and make an impressive amount of seed if you leave it long enough , no idea if the leaves would still be tender enough to eat.

[Ice]

It is perpetual, but I always sow new each season.  Winter frosts knock mine back and make them useless so I start again each year.  Love it very much as it produces a good crop.

[viettaclark]

I love perpetual spinach and Swiss chard. You can leave them in all Winter and pick occasionally then in the Spring they go mad! I've been picking every other day for salad and there are plenty of older leaves for steaming. No sign of going to seed yet but I've got replacement seed if necessary. Going to see if they really are perpetual......

[noshed]

I've just shifted a couple of clumps of mine and it seems OK

[Annie]

I just go along the row with a pair of scissors leaving about 2" growth and the little leaves at the base will grow again,I will plant fresh rows this week and dig the present rows up only when these are ready to pick.The same goes for chard though this will bolt more easily as the weather warms.

[Paul Plots]

I think I prefer Swiss Chard - the broad white stems are great steamed. Both are pretty tough and seem to over-winter. I sow both and replace the plants when I want to rearrange the plot.

Both Perteptual and Swiss Chard produce more than we need even in a small bed.

I am keen to grow "baby leaf" spinach as Mrs Learner and our off-spring consume tons of this in a year - at £1 a bag at the local supermarket I need to get growing fast.

Any tips would be welcome!   (Please)

[Oddpod]

As it produces so much leafy material I am thinking of using it as green manure - have loads of seeds from one packet. Has anyone else tried this?

[Kristen]

I plant some in the greenhouse in the Autumn for overwinter and then by the time I rip them out for the Greenhouse crops in May the outdoor Chard is coming on.

The White stemmed Swiss Chard (outside) is eaten by the birds here, and I can't be bothered to net that as well as all the other things, so we only have the White Swiss Chard in the indoor (there's posh!) Winter crop The birds seem to ignore the Ruby Chard.

I think I read that it doesn't do as well in the second season, so I resow - only one or two of my outdoor ones made it through the Winter this year (but I guess in most recent winters it would have survived)