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!)