Swisschard Fordhook Giant

Swiss Chard Fordhook Giant has gorgeous dark savoy green leaves with vibrant ivory stalks & veins that brighten up your veg patch, your dinner plate & maybe your flower beds too! Despite its size, it is a very easy to grow vegetable.

The flavorsome leaves are thick and tender, making an appealing steamed vegetable or a colourful addition to stir fries. Swiss Chard ‘Fordhook Giant’ is a well-established variety from the 1920’s and remains popular today.
As the name suggests, this monster Swiss Chard grows up 60cm tall, making an impressive display on the vegetable plot, or even in your flower borders. Height: 60cm. Spread: 50cm.
The colourful leaves & stems can be picked whilst young (in 32 days) as baby leaves and used raw in salads or left to grow on and used in stir-fries or sauteed in butter (and it keeps it’s colour when cooked!)

Planting advice:

When to Sow March to August, but best in March or July/August.

How to Sow:

Either indoors in modules/small pots with 1-2 seeds per unit and remove the weaker seedlings. Transplant out when large enough in spring spacing 15-25cm apart. Or direct sow thinly once the soil has warmed up in April-July into drills

2.5cm deep by 30cm.

Care:

They must be kept watered in summer to prevent bolting, but if some do start to bolt just cut down the middle stem and give them a good water. Keep picking leaves to encourage new ones, and during winter take off old ones before they begin to rot & affect other leaves. Chard is not hardy but is tough enough to survive most winters, just cut off any mushy leaves and it will begin to re-grow when the weather warms up.

Harvest: 10 weeks after sowing, March ones will be ready late May onwards & August sowings will be October onwards. It is a biennial so will last 2 seasons.