How to Grow Swiss Chard

When dietitians mention leafy green vegetables, the Swiss chard is at the highest of the list. associated with beets (and sometimes called leaf beet), Swiss chard as nutritious as spinach, and easier to grow. One cup of chard has 300 times the recommended daily amount of vitamin K. It’s also a superb source of vitamins A, C, and E also as magnesium, manganese, potassium, iron, and dietary fiber.

SWISS CHARD VARIETIES

Swiss chard comes with stalks and leaves that are reddish, yellowish, or green. Mixed seeds make a gorgeous display. However, since different-colored varieties have different rates of growth it’s easier to reap a monochrome patch than a mixed one. Try these varieties: Five Color Silverbeet, Oriole Orange, and Fordhook Giant.

SWISS CHARD PLANTING AND CARE

Swiss chard is one of the simplest crops to grow. Rich, well-drained soil during a sunny location is right, but chard will produce an honest crop even in light shade and in poorer soil. Sow chard seeds directly within the garden in spring when the soil reaches 50 degrees F, or about a fortnight before the last frost date.

Sow them one-half inch deep and three inches apart, Thin seedling in order that they stand ten inches apart. Mulch to take care of moisture and keep weeds down.

Swiss chard may be a versatile plant. additionally, to growing it in rows during a kitchen garden, you’ll tuck individual plants in a decorative garden. Chard is attractive enough to carry its own within the midst of flowering annuals and perennials. it’s also a fine container plant.

SWISS CHARD PESTS AND DISEASES

Insects and diseases rarely bother Swiss chard. If aphids infest older leaves just discard the leaves. Slugs chew holes in chard leaves; you’ll control the slugs with shallow pans of beer sunk to ground level or non-toxic iron phosphate slug bait. A fence is your best bet for keeping deer from consuming your crop in late summer or fall.

SWISS CHARD HARVESTING

The stalks and leaves of Swiss chard are able to harvest four-to-six weeks from sowing. It’s a “cut and comes again” crop, which suggests you’ll harvest it over and over. Pick the outer leaves and stalks first and let the inner ones mature. Snap or cut the stalks off near the soil line.

Swiss chard tolerates light frost, so you’ll harvest inner leaves through November even in northern climates. With a season extender, protective covering, row cover, or greenhouse you’ll grow and harvest Swiss chard into the winter.