Kitchen Garden Forum

I had such a good run with the swiss chard that I let some of it go to seed, however it has got bigger & bigger, looks like it is going to flower, but as yet no flowers, it is still getting bigger & bigger!

Has anyone else had any experience of collecting seed from Swiss Chard? it would be nice to know what to expect!

Last year I was going to save seed from mine but forgot and I got a nice colony of seedlings all over the place, so they do grow quite readily. They don't get a flower as such, so it might be as well to check occasionally for seeds forming.

Beetroot, chard and spinach beet (they're all the same species) produce towering cascades of flowers. They are wind pollinated, so the flowers are petal-less and diminutive. When saving seed of any root crop it is important not to save seed from plants which flower the same year they are sown (that is, plants which bolt) as they are likely to pass this characteristic on to their offspring. Instead, keep the biggest and most productive plants from your crop and let them run to seed the next year. it is by this process that the bountiful varieties we grow today came about, through selection of the most productive and resistant individuals by our forebears, rather than by hybridisation.