[kiaweeze]

Really excited now about my first crop of chard, and to think I nearly didn't bother. Thanks again for all your replies i hope it has encouraged others as well as myself!!

[Vit]

Swiss chard? Ummm is this plant have another name - "silver beet"? If so, Hell, Yeah!  Big, soft and juicy leaves. Very good for quick stir-fry meals. I tried at my place, but didn't had much success. May be too much acid on the spot 

[Kristen]

Seems that names of Leaf Beet / Swiss Chard / Perpetual Spinach are ambiguous - and perhaps just interchangeable?

We grow three types of Leaf Beet - Rhubarb Chard, Bright Lights and "Spinach Beet / White Silver 2 / Silver or Sea Kale" (I kinda get the impression that even Suttons aren't sure how to name it!)

I pull the red-stem seedlings out of the Bright Lights 'coz I reckon they are the same as the Ruby Chard. So that leaves me with mostly the Yellow stems ones. I grow 8 plants each of the three varieties which is masses for us to eat.

I planted them out yesterday, they were sown a month or two back.

Any that bolt I just cut off the flowering stalk - doesn't seem to make much difference to its producing more leaves.

and no pests seem to touch it including rogue rabbits

The broad white stems "White Silver 2" is decimated by pigeons here, nothing bothers with the other two, but I net the lot as they are planted side-by-side.

This is precisely why I'm growing/eating it for the first time this year too - when looking for veg for winter, it just kept coming up again and again on searches, so I thought there must be something in it! I've got 'bright lights' and 'Rhubarb' Chard to try. Hopefully something to keep me and the chucks going over the winter months!

I sow some in August and put them in the greenhouse where the Sweetcorn / French beans were, and we crop them the following spring until the Sweetcorn goes out. (I'm careful with my planting pattern so I can put the Sweetcorn in with the Beet until the Sweetcorn needs all the room - by early June the heat in the greenhouse has caused the leaf beet to be running to seed anyway).

We don't get much / anything off it during the winter, as it hardly grows at all, so only crop it once Spring comes.

I admit the coloured ones look very pretty, but have found that it's the 'ordinar' white swiss chard that is strongest growing for overwintering IMO.

I agree. My favourite too. Supposedly the Ruby is more prone to bolting but can't say I've noticed any of the three more prone than the others.

sorry for butting in, but ive just planted out some rainbow chard, how do you cook it, can it only be cooked as spinach or can it be roasted with other veg, i roast the leaves off of beetroot bloomin luverly!  can the leaves be eaten raw in a salad ?

I run the stalks between Thumb and Index fingers separating leaf-from-stem, and we steam the leaf (similar to cooking Spinach).  The stalks need a longer cooking time - we sometimes cook them standing-up in the Asparagus steamer (which gives the expensive contraption something to do for the other 11 months of the year!)

[VeggieVirgin]

I grow Bright Lights in a tray to  harvest as baby leaf for salads.

[Paul Plots]

Kristen Swiss Chard is very different from Perpetual Sinach.

[1st time veg grower]

This is precisely why I'm growing/eating it for the first time this year too - when looking for veg for winter, it just kept coming up again and again on searches, so I thought there must be something in it! I've got 'bright lights' and 'Rhubarb' Chard to try. Hopefully something to keep me and the chucks going over the winter months!

I sow some in August and put them in the greenhouse where the Sweetcorn / French beans were, and we crop them the following spring until the Sweetcorn goes out. (I'm careful with my planting pattern so I can put the Sweetcorn in with the Beet until the Sweetcorn needs all the room - by early June the heat in the greenhouse has caused the leaf beet to be running to seed anyway).

We don't get much / anything off it during the winter, as it hardly grows at all, so only crop it once Spring comes.

That's very interesting, as I was just going with what I read on the internet -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growfruitandveg_growingspinachchardandbeet1.shtml
'Chard is mainly sown in the spring for picking over the summer, although by protecting the crop with a cloche, leaves can be harvested during autumn and winter.'
Though I also read that if you give it a break from dec-feb (which to me is winter!) it should come back strongly in the spring... I also plan to grow some in the greenhouse so I'll see what happens! It wasn't only winter but spring would be good too -if it lasts that long/survives over winter - as all I seem to be eating this year is salad... 

[Paul Plots]

Swiss Chard started off in the growing season (Spring through to late summer) can be left outside right through the winter. Although it does not grow speedily a 10 to 15 foot row will still provide enough tender / useable leaves to give several "feeds" through the winter months.

My father grew Swiss Chard for years and was always able to bring some home for dinner (I hated it as a kid!  ). I grow it now although not so much. My OH isn't keen but my daughter and I enjoy it occasionally.

[8doubles]

and no pests seem to touch it including rogue rabbits

It is not fit for pests and rabbits or me ! 
I prefer beetroot leaves, and the pests do too .

[Kristen]

Kristen Swiss Chard is very different from Perpetual Sinach.

I'm very happy to be enlightened. I've never found a description that explained where one finishes and the other starts ...

Wikipedia (which I grant you may not be authoritative) says "Chard, also known by the common names Swiss chard,[1] silverbeet, perpetual spinach, spinach beet, crab beet, seakale beet, and mangold"

P.S. the Rhubarb Chard and Bright Lights I grow has a rather different size and type of leaf, and stalk, to the "Spinach Beet / White Silver 2 / Silver or Sea Kale".

[shokkyy]

I've seen conflicting advice on Swiss Chard from different seed suppliers. Some say it doesn't like being moved so you must sow in situ, but others say you can start it off under glass and then plant out. Can anyone tell me which is right?

[mumofstig]

Does this clarify, or just confuse further

 dt brown....chard/perpetual spinach
http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/seeds-plants-gardening/14594/chard-perpetual-spinach

Silver2 chard/seakale beet, the one I grow here
http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/seeds-plants-gardening/15624/chard-white-silver-2

[mumofstig]

I've seen conflicting advice on Swiss Chard from different seed suppliers. Some say it doesn't like being moved so you must sow in situ, but others say you can start it off under glass and then plant out. Can anyone tell me which is right?

I've done both ways with no problems

[shokkyy]

Thanks, mum. (Oh, that takes me back )

I didn't know DT Brown did free P&P on seeds. I'll have to give them a go.

Done. White Silver 2 ordered

[Paul Plots]

I've seen conflicting advice on Swiss Chard from different seed suppliers. Some say it doesn't like being moved so you must sow in situ, but others say you can start it off under glass and then plant out. Can anyone tell me which is right?

Not the foggiest....    I usually start mine off in paper (or small plastic) pots and then plonk in the ground where I want it. Works well and is very easy. 

[Kristen]

I've seen conflicting advice on Swiss Chard from different seed suppliers. Some say it doesn't like being moved so you must sow in situ, but others say you can start it off under glass and then plant out. Can anyone tell me which is right?

I have always started mine off in seed trays, pricked out to 3" pots, and then planted out. Can't say I've had a problem, but sooner or later it runs to seed - but if "earlier" I just chop the flowering stalks off and it carries on reasonably well - perhaps that's as a consequence of being pot-raised, but if so it has never bothered me much.