Best Swiss Chard Varieties for Pennsylvania: Top Picks for Zones 5a-7a

You are staring at a seed rack in the garden center and there are six different swiss chard varieties in front of you. One has rainbow stems, another promises giant leaves, a third says it handles cold better than the rest. The packets all look the same size and cost the same price, but picking the wrong one means months of disappointment in your Pennsylvania garden — bolting too early, weak flavor, or leaves riddled with cercospora by July.

The right variety depends on where you are in Pennsylvania, what you plan to do with the harvest, and how much effort you want to spend on disease management. A variety that thrives in the long warm summers of zone 7a near Philadelphia may bolt or underperform in the shorter, colder season of zone 5a near Erie. This guide compares eight swiss chard varieties that perform well across Pennsylvania zones 5a through 7a, with honest assessments of flavor, disease resistance, cold tolerance, and best use.

Below you will find a head-to-head comparison table, individual variety profiles with PA-specific growing notes, a breakdown of which varieties work best for containers, raised beds, and in-ground plantings, zone-by-zone performance ratings, seed starting guidance, and answers to the most common variety selection questions from PA gardeners.

How to Choose the Right Swiss Chard Variety for Pennsylvania

Swiss chard variety selection in Pennsylvania comes down to four factors: your USDA zone, your primary use (fresh eating vs. cooking), your growing setup (in-ground, raised bed, or container), and your tolerance for disease management. Not every variety handles PA’s specific challenges equally well.

Pennsylvania’s biggest growing challenge for swiss chard is the humid summer stretch from June through August. Cercospora leaf spot thrives in this window and some varieties are far more susceptible than others. If you have had cercospora problems before, variety choice alone can cut your fungicide spraying in half. Our swiss chard pests and diseases guide covers specific control strategies, but starting with a resistant variety is the best first line of defense.

The second factor is cold tolerance. Zone 5a gardeners in northern PA and the Poconos have a growing season that is 4-6 weeks shorter than zone 7a near Philadelphia. Varieties with strong cold tolerance extend your harvest window on both ends — they can go out earlier in spring and keep producing later into fall. According to Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station, swiss chard is among the most cold-tolerant leafy greens, but performance varies significantly by variety once temperatures drop below 25 degrees.

Third, consider stem thickness. Thick-stemmed varieties like Fordhook Giant produce substantial ribs that cook like a separate vegetable. Thin-stemmed varieties like Lucullus and Perpetual Spinach cook more like spinach and work better in salads. This is a flavor and texture preference, not a quality issue, but it matters to how you will actually use the harvest.

Side-by-Side Swiss Chard Variety Comparison for Pennsylvania

This table compares the eight varieties that perform best across Pennsylvania’s zones 5a through 7a. Days to maturity assumes a spring outdoor planting after last frost. Flavor ratings are subjective but based on consistent feedback from PA gardeners and trial data.

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Fordhook Giant

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Fordhook Giant is the workhorse of swiss chard varieties and the one I recommend to any PA gardener who wants to grow exactly one variety. It has been a standard in American gardens since the 1930s and there is a reason it has lasted — it produces reliably in every zone from 5a to 7a, tolerates heat and cold better than most alternatives, and gives you thick white stems that cook beautifully alongside the large crinkled dark green leaves.

The leaves on a mature Fordhook Giant plant reach 12-16 inches long with broad, savoyed (crinkled) surfaces that hold sauces and dressings well. The stems are wide, flat, and substantial — some gardeners separate them from the leaves and braise them like a completely different vegetable. In terms of raw volume, Fordhook Giant outproduces most other varieties because its large leaf size means fewer cuts to fill a basket.

Disease resistance is moderate but better than average for swiss chard. Fordhook Giant shows fewer cercospora symptoms than Bright Lights or Lucullus in humid PA summers, though it is not immune. The thick leaf tissue seems to resist penetration better than thinner-leaved varieties. If cercospora is a recurring problem in your garden, Fordhook Giant combined with proper spacing and airflow is your best bet.

Growing Notes for PA

Fordhook Giant handles spring frosts down to about 20 degrees on established plants, making it one of the earliest varieties you can safely transplant in zones 5a and 5b. In zone 7a, it often overwinters under mulch and produces a small early spring flush before bolting in its second year.

Space plants 10-12 inches apart in PA gardens. The large leaf spread needs room, and tight spacing increases cercospora risk during humid stretches. Fordhook Giant is a heavy feeder — side-dress with compost or balanced fertilizer every 3-4 weeks during the growing season for the biggest leaves.

Bright Lights

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Bright Lights is the variety that turned swiss chard from a plain green cooking vegetable into a garden showpiece. The stems come in a rainbow of colors — red, orange, gold, pink, magenta, and white — and every seed packet produces a different color mix. It won an All-America Selections award in 1998 and has been the best-selling chard variety in the US since then.

The ornamental value is obvious, but Bright Lights is more than a pretty face. The flavor is milder and sweeter than most chard varieties, making it one of the best options for raw eating in salads. Young leaves harvested at 4-6 inches are tender enough to eat straight from the garden. The stems are thinner than Fordhook Giant but still have a pleasant crunch when cooked briefly.

The downside in Pennsylvania is disease susceptibility. Bright Lights tends to show cercospora leaf spot earlier and more severely than Fordhook Giant or Ruby Red. The thin leaf tissue is easier for fungal spores to penetrate, and the lighter-colored leaves show symptoms more visibly. Plan on a more aggressive disease prevention program if you grow Bright Lights through PA’s humid summer.

Growing Notes for PA

Bright Lights matures in 55-60 days and begins producing baby leaves for cutting as early as 30 days after transplant. In PA zone 7a, you can get three full successions from March through September. In zone 5a, plan on two successions — spring and late summer — with a midsummer gap when heat and humidity make growing conditions difficult.

This variety does well in container plantings where you can control soil conditions and provide better airflow than in-ground beds. Space plants 8-10 inches apart and harvest outer leaves continuously rather than cutting the whole plant.

Ruby Red (Rhubarb Chard)

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Ruby Red — also sold as Rhubarb Chard, Ruby Chard, or Burgundy Chard — is a single-color variety with deep crimson stems and dark green leaves veined with red. It is one of the most striking plants you can grow in a PA vegetable garden and doubles as an ornamental border plant in flower beds and landscape plantings.

The flavor is earthier and slightly more bitter than Bright Lights or Fordhook Giant, which some people love and others find too strong for raw eating. Cooking mellows the bitterness considerably. The deep red color holds well through cooking, which makes Ruby Red popular for dishes where visual presentation matters.

Disease resistance is a genuine advantage. Ruby Red shows moderate to good resistance to cercospora leaf spot in PA trials. The dark leaf pigmentation may play a role — researchers have found that anthocyanin-rich leaves show reduced fungal penetration compared to lighter varieties. If you have battled cercospora in previous seasons, Ruby Red is a smart choice.

Growing Notes for PA

Ruby Red matures in 55-65 days and has good cold tolerance for spring and fall plantings. It handles light frosts to about 24 degrees without cover. Space plants 8-10 inches apart. The deep red stems provide strong contrast when planted alongside white-stemmed varieties like Fordhook Giant or green-stemmed Perpetual Spinach.

One quirk of Ruby Red: the seeds tend to germinate slightly more slowly and unevenly than other varieties. Soaking seeds in lukewarm water for 2-4 hours before planting improves germination rates by 15-20%. This is true for all chard varieties but makes the biggest difference with red-stemmed types.

Lucullus

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Lucullus is an heirloom variety from the early 1900s that produces pale green-white stems and light green, heavily crinkled leaves. It is the mildest-flavored swiss chard you can grow — the taste is closer to spinach than to traditional chard, with almost no bitterness even when eaten raw. If you or your family members think they do not like swiss chard, Lucullus is the variety to change their mind.

The leaves are thinner and more tender than Fordhook Giant, which makes Lucullus ideal for fresh salads and light sauteing. Baby leaves harvested at 4-5 inches are nearly indistinguishable from spinach. The thin stems cook quickly and do not require separate preparation. Lucullus is the variety to grow if you want a spinach substitute that produces all summer long when actual spinach has bolted and gone to seed.

The trade-off is disease susceptibility. Lucullus has the lowest cercospora resistance of any variety in this guide. In humid PA summers, it will develop leaf spot symptoms earlier and more severely than other options. Grow it as an early spring and late fall crop to avoid the worsvarieties. If cercospora is a recurring problem in your garden, Fordhook Giant combined with proper spacing and airflow is your best bet.

Growing Notes for PA

Fordhook Giant handles spring frosts down to about 20 degrees on established plants, making it one of the earliest varieties you can safely transplant in zones 5a and 5b. In zone 7a, it often overwinters under mulch and produces a small early spring flush before bolting in its second year.

Space plants 10-12 inches apart in PA gardens. The large leaf spread needs room, and tight spacing increases cercospora risk during humid stretches. Fordhook Giant is a heavy feeder — side-dress with compost or balanced fertilizer every 3-4 weeks during the growing season for the biggest leaves.

Bright Lights

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Bright Lights is the variety that turned swiss chard from a plain green cooking vegetable into a garden showpiece. The stems come in a rainbow of colors — red, orange, gold, pink, magenta, and white — and every seed packet produces a different color mix. It won an All-America Selections award in 1998 and has been the best-selling chard variety in the US since then.

The ornamental value is obvious, but Bright Lights is more than a pretty face. The flavor is milder and sweeter than most chard varieties, making it one of the best options for raw eating in salads. Young leaves harvested at 4-6 inches are tender enough to eat straight from the garden. The stems are thinner than Fordhook Giant but still have a pleasant crunch when cooked briefly.

The downside in Pennsylvania is disease susceptibility. Bright Lights tends to show cercospora leaf spot earlier and more severely than Fordhook Giant or Ruby Red. The thin leaf tissue is easier for fungal spores to penetrate, and the lighter-colored leaves show symptoms more visibly. Plan on a more aggressive disease prevention program if you grow Bright Lights through PA’s humid summer.

Growing Notes for PA

Bright Lights matures in 55-60 days and begins producing baby leaves for cutting as early as 30 days after transplant. In PA zone 7a, you can get three full successions from March through September. In zone 5a, plan on two successions — spring and late summer — with a midsummer gap when heat and humidity make growing conditions difficult.

This variety does well in container plantings where you can control soil conditions and provide better airflow than in-ground beds. Space plants 8-10 inches apart and harvest outer leaves continuously rather than cutting the whole plant.

Ruby Red (Rhubarb Chard)

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Ruby Red — also sold as Rhubarb Chard, Ruby Chard, or Burgundy Chard — is a single-color variety with deep crimson stems and dark green leaves veined with red. It is one of the most striking plants you can grow in a PA vegetable garden and doubles as an ornamental border plant in flower beds and landscape plantings.

The flavor is earthier and slightly more bitter than Bright Lights or Fordhook Giant, which some people love and others find too strong for raw eating. Cooking mellows the bitterness considerably. The deep red color holds well through cooking, which makes Ruby Red popular for dishes where visual presentation matters.

Disease resistance is a genuine advantage. Ruby Red shows moderate to good resistance to cercospora leaf spot in PA trials. The dark leaf pigmentation may play a role — researchers have found that anthocyanin-rich leaves show reduced fungal penetration compared to lighter varieties. If you have battled cercospora in previous seasons, Ruby Red is a smart choice.

Growing Notes for PA

Ruby Red matures in 55-65 days and has good cold tolerance for spring and fall plantings. It handles light frosts to about 24 degrees without cover. Space plants 8-10 inches apart. The deep red stems provide strong contrast when planted alongside white-stemmed varieties like Fordhook Giant or green-stemmed Perpetual Spinach.

One quirk of Ruby Red: the seeds tend to germinate slightly more slowly and unevenly than other varieties. Soaking seeds in lukewarm water for 2-4 hours before planting improves germination rates by 15-20%. This is true for all chard varieties but makes the biggest difference with red-stemmed types.

Lucullus

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Lucullus is an heirloom variety from the early 1900s that produces pale green-white stems and light green, heavily crinkled leaves. It is the mildest-flavored swiss chard you can grow — the taste is closer to spinach than to traditional chard, with almost no bitterness even when eaten raw. If you or your family members think they do not like swiss chard, Lucullus is the variety to change their mind.

The leaves are thinner and more tender than Fordhook Giant, which makes Lucullus ideal for fresh salads and light sauteing. Baby leaves harvested at 4-5 inches are nearly indistinguishable from spinach. The thin stems cook quickly and do not require separate preparation. Lucullus is the variety to grow if you want a spinach substitute that produces all summer long when actual spinach has bolted and gone to seed.

The trade-off is disease susceptibility. Lucullus has the lowest cercospora resistance of any variety in this guide. In humid PA summers, it will develop leaf spot symptoms earlier and more severely than other options. Grow it as an early spring and late fall crop to avoid the worst of the disease pressure, or commit to a regular fungicide program if you want it through summer.

Growing Notes for PA

Lucullus is the fastest variety to maturity at 50-55 days, which makes it excellent for succession planting. Sow a new batch every 3 weeks from early April through mid-August for continuous production. In zone 5a, start the first indoor sowing in late February and transplant under row cover in early April.

Peppermint Stick

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Peppermint Stick is a novelty variety with pink and white striped stems that look like candy canes in the garden. The visual effect is stunning and makes this variety a conversation starter at farmers markets, community gardens, and anywhere visitors can see your beds. The leaves are medium-sized with a mild, slightly sweet flavor that works well both raw and cooked.

Performance in Pennsylvania is decent but not exceptional. Peppermint Stick has moderate cold tolerance — it handles light frosts but suffers more than Fordhook Giant or Perpetual Spinach when temperatures dip below 25 degrees. Cercospora resistance is low to moderate, similar to Bright Lights. Grow it for the visual appeal and pleasant flavor, but do not count on it as your primary production variety in challenging conditions.

Growing Notes for PA

Space plants 8-10 inches apart. Peppermint Stick produces best in the 55-75 degree range and tends to slow down during the hottest weeks of July and August in zones 6b and 7a. A midsummer succession sowing in late July produces a strong fall harvest when temperatures cool back into the ideal range.

The striped pattern is most vivid in young stems. Harvest regularly at the outer-leaf stage to keep new colorful stems coming. Old stems that stay on the plant for weeks lose their contrast and fade toward solid pink or white.

Oriole Orange

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Oriole Orange produces vivid orange stems and dark green leaves with orange veining. The color is the most intense orange of any chard variety available and it holds its vibrancy through the full growing season. Flavor is mild with a subtle nutty undertone that makes it one of the more interesting varieties for raw eating.

Disease resistance is moderate — on par with Fordhook Giant and White Silver. Oriole Orange handles cercospora better than Bright Lights and Lucullus, making it a reasonable choice for PA gardeners who want color without the disease management headaches. Cold tolerance is moderate, adequate for zones 6a and warmer but not the strongest performer in zone 5a.

Growing Notes for PA

Oriole Orange matures in 55-60 days and produces medium to large leaves on thick orange stems. The stems are sturdy enough for braising and have good crunch when raw. Plant 8-10 inches apart and harvest outer leaves to keep production going through the season. This variety pairs beautifully with Ruby Red and Fordhook Giant in a three-variety planting that gives you red, orange, and white stems from a single bed.

White Silver

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

White Silver is the refined version of the classic white-stemmed chard. It produces bright white stems that are wider and flatter than Fordhook Giant with large, dark green savoyed leaves. The flavor is mild and clean — less earthy than Fordhook Giant, making it preferred by some PA gardeners for fresh eating and light cooking.

White Silver has a slight edge in leaf size and stem width over Fordhook Giant in side-by-side PA garden trials, though the difference is small. Where it shines is in uniformity — the stems are consistently white and wide across every plant, whereas Fordhook Giant occasionally throws plants with narrower stems or slightly greenish coloring.

Disease resistance is moderate, comparable to Fordhook Giant. Cold tolerance is good — established plants handle frosts to about 22 degrees without protection. White Silver is the variety to grow if you want a clean, consistent white-stemmed chard for the kitchen and find Fordhook Giant a little too variable.

Growing Notes for PA

Space White Silver 10-12 inches apart because the leaf spread is substantial. Maturity runs 55-60 days from transplant. The large leaves make this an efficient variety for gardeners who want maximum yield per square foot. A single mature plant can produce 1-2 pounds of leaves per week during peak season with regular harvesting.

Perpetual Spinach

Why It Works in Pennsylvania

Perpetual Spinach is technically a swiss chard variety (Beta vulgaris var. cicla) but it looks and tastes more like spinach than traditional chard. The leaves are small to medium with thin green stems — no thick ribs, no colorful display, just a steady supply of tender mild greens from spring through late fall. It is the workhorse variety for gardeners who want a spinach substitute that does not bolt in summer heat.

True spinach bolts aggressively in Pennsylvania once temperatures hit 75-80 degrees, typically by late May in zone 7a and mid-June in zone 5a. Perpetual Spinach keeps producing right through the heat, giving you spinach-flavored greens from April through November. For PA gardeners who eat a lot of cooked greens and salads, this variety fills the summer gap that spinach leaves behind.

Cold tolerance is excellent — among the best of any chard variety. Perpetual Spinach handles temperatures down to 15-20 degrees under row cover and regularly overwinters in zone 7a with light mulch protection. In zones 5a and 5b, it survives most PA winters under a cold frame. According to the Old Farmer’s Almanac, swiss chard is biennial and will flower in its second year, but Perpetual Spinach gives you usable greens right up until the flower stalk emerges.

Growing Notes for PA

Perpetual Spinach matures in 50-55 days and produces best when harvested continuously at the baby leaf stage (4-6 inches). The compact habit makes it the top choice for container growing — a 10-inch pot supports one plant that provides a steady cut-and-come-again harvest for months. Space in-ground plants 6-8 inches apart because the smaller growth habit does not need as much room as large-leaved varieties.

Best Varieties by Growing Situation

Not every variety suits every setup. Use this table to match your growing situation to the varieties that perform best there.

Variety Performance by PA Zone

Pennsylvania stretches across four USDA zones and the best variety for your garden depends partly on where you are. This table rates each variety’s overall performance in each PA region on a 5-point scale based on yield, disease resistance, season length, and reliability.

The pattern is clear. Fordhook Giant and Perpetual Spinach score highest across all PA zones because their cold tolerance and disease resistance translate to reliable production no matter where you garden. Bright Lights and Lucullus perform better in zone 7a where the longer warm season compensates for their weaker disease resistance. Ruby Red is the best choice for zone 7a specifically because its cercospora resistance matters most where humid summers are longest.

In northern PA (zones 5a-5b), stick with Fordhook Giant or Perpetual Spinach for your main production and plant a small patch of Bright Lights for color and fresh eating. The shorter season and cooler temperatures actually reduce cercospora pressure, so Bright Lights performs better than its disease rating would suggest — the fungus rarely has time to establish before fall arrives.

Starting Swiss Chard Varieties from Seed in Pennsylvania

All eight varieties in this guide grow easily from seed. Swiss chard seeds are actually clusters of 2-4 seeds fused together (technically they are fruits, not individual seeds), which is why you often get multiple seedlings from a single “seed” and need to thin. Soaking seeds for 2-4 hours in lukewarm water before planting softens the seed coat and improves germination rates across all varieties.

Indoor Seed Starting

Start swiss chard seeds indoors 4-6 weeks before your last frost date. For zone 5a, that means starting in late February to early March. For zone 7a, start in mid-February. Use a quality seed starting mix in cell trays or small pots and keep soil temperature at 65-75 degrees for fastest germination. Seeds typically emerge in 7-14 days.

Thin to one seedling per cell when the first true leaves appear. Chard seedlings tolerate root disturbance well, so you can transplant the thinned extras into additional cells rather than discarding them. Harden off transplants for 5-7 days before planting outdoors — set them outside in a sheltered spot for increasing hours each day until they are spending full days and nights outside.

Direct Sowing Outdoors

Direct sow swiss chard seeds outdoors when soil temperature reaches 50 degrees at a 2-inch depth. In zone 7a, this is typically early to mid-April. In zone 5a, wait until early to mid-May. Plant seeds 1 inch deep and 2 inches apart, then thin to final spacing (variety-dependent, usually 8-12 inches) when seedlings are 3-4 inches tall. For the full planting calendar with exact dates by zone, see our when to plant swiss chard in Pennsylvania guide.

Direct-sown chard matures 1-2 weeks later than transplanted chard because of the initial establishment period. For the earliest possible harvest, start indoors and transplant. For simplicity and lower cost, direct sow. Both methods work well in all PA zones.

Variety-Specific Germination Notes

Extending the Harvest with the Right Varieties

The right variety choice can add 4-8 weeks to your swiss chard harvest in Pennsylvania. Cold-tolerant varieties like Fordhook Giant and Perpetual Spinach keep producing well past the first fall frosts that would end the season for less hardy types.

Spring Extension

In zones 5a and 5b, transplant Fordhook Giant or Perpetual Spinach under lightweight row cover 2-3 weeks before the last expected frost. Both varieties tolerate the 20-25 degree overnight temperatures common in early April in northern PA. The row cover provides 4-6 degrees of frost protection and allows you to start harvesting in late April instead of late May.

Fall Extension

Perpetual Spinach is the standout for fall harvests. It keeps producing usable leaves down to about 20 degrees with no protection and down to 15 degrees under row cover. In zone 7a, unprotected Perpetual Spinach often produces into December. In zone 5a, add a cold frame over the row cover and you can harvest into January from a September sowing.

Fordhook Giant is nearly as cold-hardy and gives you larger leaves for fall cooking. Ruby Red holds up reasonably well through light frosts but drops production faster than Fordhook or Perpetual Spinach once temperatures consistently stay below 30 degrees.

Avoid Lucullus and Peppermint Stick for fall season extension — both varieties shut down production earlier than the cold-tolerant options and are not worth the row cover investment for fall harvest.

Plan your full season: See our monthly planting guide for a month-by-month schedule, or browse all crops in our Pennsylvania vegetables hub. For frost timing, check our PA frost dates by region.

Frequently Asked Questions About Swiss Chard Varieties in Pennsylvania