Category: Seed Sowing

The fresh crinkly, edible leaves can be picked when young and used in salads dishes. Larger leaves can be cooked and served like spinach or the leaves can be cooked by steaming. There are a wide number of recipes available for cooking chard.

Seed sowing

Seeds can be sown indoors, in a greenhouse in March and April to give the plants a head start. You can sow the seed clusters 2cm deep in pots or modular trays of damp seed compost at the rate of one per pot or module. Each cluster will produce 3-5 seedlings, so you will need to reduce these to one healthy plant. Ensure the pots or trays do not dry out. Germination takes 5-7 days.

Alternatively, you can sow directly outdoors into well prepared seed beds from April to July. Create a furrow around 2cm deep and sow the seeds thinly. Cover with fine soil and water with a watering can and fine rose attachment. Thin the emerging seedlings to 30cm apart for large plants, much less if growing for cut and come again baby leaves.

Growing in containers

Rainbow chard will grow well in containers of fertile soil or compost and the plants looks great placed on a sunny patio. Plants that have been grown under cover can be transplanted to containers from May onwards or when all danger of frost has passed. It’s always a good idea to acclimatise (harden off) plants that are grown under cover as they will be tender and susceptible to frost and wind damage.

Chard like to be positioned in full sun or partial shade but must be kept watered during dry weather. A liquid fertiliser feed can be applied every 2 weeks to ensure the plants grow strong and healthy.

Harvesting and storage

For a continuous fresh supply of leaves for salads, pick young leaves regularly to encourage new growth. Just one or two crops will keep the supply coming all through the summer months and well into the autumn. For cooking, large leaves can be harvested at any time but again the more you pick the more you will get. It’s best to cut through the stems cleanly with a sharp knife, leaving a few centimetres of stem in the ground, and working your way from the outside inwards.

Rainbow chard can be frozen for up to a year if first blanched and then packed in airtight bags.

Nutritional Values:

Vitamins A, C and K and many other trace elements. It has anti-inflammatory properties. The leaves also contain a high level of nitrates, which are known to reduce blood pressure, and alpha-lipoic acid, which is known to control blood sugar levels.

A fast cropping variety, producing cylindrical red radishes, tipped with white. The roots are crisp and have a mild flavour, perfect for adding to summer salads. Radishes grow well in most soils, but prefer rich, moist free draining soils.

Sow seeds very thinly 1cm (0.5in) deep in drills 15cm (6in) apart. Thin out the seedlings to 20mm (3/4 in) as necessary, Ready to harvest from 21 days from sowing.

Top Tip:
Sow little and regularly for continuous succulent roots throughout the summer.

Cress is the simplest of food crops but is incredibly delicious. It makes a good and easy to grow Watercress substitute. Cress has a peppery flavour making it the perfect final touch to a sandwich. Cress is also a great little plant for young children to grow.

How to grow Cress plants from seed

• When sowing indoor Cress You can literally lay the seed on damp on tissue or a small layer of compost.
• If sowing outside, sow in blocks creating a good thick covering of cress when they germinate.
• Rake the ground level and lightly firm. Sow cress seeds as evenly as possible over the area
• Keep these seeds well-watered using a watering can with a rose head turned upside down. This will avoid splashing the seeds out.

How to grow cress seeds in cotton wool?

Grow a cress egg head! A great easy to grow plant that children can grow. Grow it in used egg-shells with the tops knocked off. Decorate them first with paint and draw on a face.

Fill the egg-shell with soil, kitchen roll or cotton wool and sprinkle the Cress seed on thickly. Cress will grow to make an edible hairstyle. Crop and eat when at seedling stage using a pair of scissors to harvest.

How long does cress take to grow?

Speedy cress can be grown indoors all year round, and takes just 6-8 days to reach maturity.

When to Sow: March-May.
How to Sow: Direct sow seeds in pre-watered drills 12mm deep, in rows 30cm apart, lightly cover with fine soil. Germination takes 10-15 days. When large enough thin seedlings to every 15cm. Alternatively sow under glass & keep at a temperature of about 20C. Pot on & then plant out in late spring. Plant at 15cm intervals.

Care: Keep watered. After a couple of years chives like to be divided in March or October, as it stops the bulbs becoming congested and less productive. Just divide up a clump into smaller clumps and pot up straight away – new plants for free. Although it is a perennial evergreen in very cold winters it may die back, but will regrow in spring, a thick layer of mulch around the plant in autumn may help.

Harvest: 10 weeks from spring sowings onwards. As a perennial they will be ready to pick from year to year from April to October and if a plant is potted up in September – it can be picked for a further 6 weeks. Just cut the chives with sharp scissors leaving 5cm of chive leaf, cut the outside leaves first and work inwards as more chives required and they will regrow.

Harvest: 10 weeks from spring sowings onwards. As a perennial they will be ready to pick from year to year from April to October and if a plant is potted up in September – it can be picked for a further 6 weeks. Just cut the chives with sharp scissors leaving 5cm of chive leaf, cut the outside leaves first and work inwards as more chives required and they will regrow.

Dead head regularly to encourage continuous flowering.

Seed Saving: Allow seeds to form on the largest heads and allow to dry and then harvest the seeds.

Nutritional Values: Sunflower seeds are rich in the B complex vitamins, which are essential for a healthy nervous system, and are a good source of phosphorus, magnesium, iron, calcium, potassium, protein and vitamin E.

Culinary uses: Sunflower heads are edible and are delicious roasted with a little salt and pepper and olive oil.

• Early indoor sowings in pots or trays under glass. Thin to 5-6cm (2-2.5”) apart before gradually hardening off and planting out in April 25cm (10”) apart.Later sowings direct into the growing site 1cm (0.5”) deep. Gradually thin to eventual spacing 25cm (102). The thinnings can be potted for winter use. Always harvest by cutting 2cm (¾”) above the soil to encourage new growth.