How tall does chard grow

Water well after thinning. Keep an eye out for pests, but apart from watering, this is an easy vegetable to look after.

Swiss chard can be grown successfully in containers and even in among your flower borders, where it will complement the hot colours of late summer flowers. Young chard leaves are delicious eaten fresh and you can use early thinnings for salads. The fully-formed leaves will be ready to harvest about weeks after sowing, but late summer sowings may take a little longer.

Cut individual leaves as you need them and the plant will keep producing new growth. Check out this advice on harvesting Swiss chard, carrots and beetroot.

Swiss chard is best eaten soon after picking. However, leaves can be blanched and frozen for later use in soups. See some of the tasty recipes using Swiss chard , from our friends at Olive Magazine. Remove leaves with significant leaf miner damage and look underneath leaves for a row of pearl-white eggs; destroy them. Chard harvest. Chard will be ready for harvest in 55 to 60 days from sowing.

Pick outside leaves as early as three inches long but before leaves grow to10 inches long. Older leaves will have an earthy flavor. Harvest chard on a cut-and-come-again schedule; remove a few outside leaves at a time. If you harvest the whole plant, cut it back to about 3 inches 7cm above the soil and it will grow back. Chare that overwinters can be harvested again the second year.

Storing and reserving chard. Chard will keep in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. Remove the stem and chard will keep in the freezer for up to 6 months. Chard varieties. Red chard: Rainbow 60 days ; Ruby Red 55 days ; Vulcan 60 days. Light green chard: Giant Lucullus 50 days ; Lucullus 50 days.

More tips: Chard Seed Starting Tips. Your email address will not be published. Once that occurs, the taste of the leaves may change, becoming less flavorful. Some gardeners just pick leaves as they develop until the plant bolts.

When you see a flowering stalk form, you can try cutting it off to prolong harvest of the leaves. You can harvest both the large leaves and the young, tender ones; it depends on preference large leaves are nice boiled or steamed, whereas baby leaves are tasty in salads. Cutting from the outer part of the plant will encourage new leaves to form in the center. If you pick selectively, allow some leaves at least 30 to 40 percent for the plant to make food for itself to grow more leaves.

You can try cutting it completely back as well, as long as it seems to be healthy; but this will delay harvest. Meanwhile, warming temperatures may spur the plant to go to seed. If you dig up the chard plant in the fall and keep it through the winter in a cool place can you replant it the next spring? Heat at a low of around fifty degrees. When you first transplant, the chard will look limp but it should rebound!

I am telling you. Can Chad grow in Mumbai, India? I planted one seed, brought from Australia. A small red shoot appeared in 14 days. But I do not know whether it will grow to proper size. Magenta Swiss Chard was purchased to give my hanging baskets Zone 8 some "life" during the coming winter. Are these plants "winter hardy" in hanging baskets? SW exposure with hrs. Swiss chard is a semi-hardy plant and will tolerate light frost. Depending on your winter temps you may want to bring the baskets inside if a hard freeze is in the forecast.

Hi Joanne, Yes, Swiss chard is very easy to grow indoors. Soak the seeds for 24 hours in water before planting to speed up germination.

Place the container in a sunny window and you'll have baby chard growing in a week or two. I grow chard every year and it does very well for me , in some mild winters I can mulch and I can get it to return the next season. Skip to main content. You are here Gardening » Growing Guides. Planting, Growing, and Harvesting Swiss Chard. By The Editors. Swiss chart with its colorful stems. For the spring season, plant chard seeds 2 to 3 weeks before the last spring frost date.

When ready to plant, apply fertilizer to the area. To speed germination, soak seeds in water for 24 hours prior to planting. Continue planting seeds at day intervals for a month.

Flea Beetles. These small, black beetles, which jump like fleas when disturbed, chew numerous small holes in leaves. Cover beds with row cover fabric as soon as seeds are planted to keep beetles away.

Leaf Miners. Adult flies lay eggs in leaves that hatch out into larvae that feed within the leaf tissue, creating visible winding tunnels. The best way to avoid damage is to cover beds with row cover fabric as soon as they are seeded to prevent egg-laying. Leaf Spot. Cercospora leaf spot is a fungal disease that can infect chard, as well as beets and spinach, causing brown or gray spots with reddish margins.

To help reduce problems with this disease, rotate the location of susceptible crops in the garden on a 2-year cycle; clean up plant debris well at the end of the season to get rid of infected residues; make sure to thin plants to ensure good air circulation; and keep leaves dry by using drip irrigation or watering plants overhead in early morning so leaves dry quickly.

You can begin harvesting plants when their leaves are about 6 inches long, usually about 6 weeks after planting.