genus Beta vulgarissubsp .

vulgaris , ( CiclaandFlavescensGroups )

Swiss chard , B. vulgaris , is a character of Beta vulgaris .

But alternatively of feature a well - develop and saporous root word , its title to celebrity is lustrous ruck leave-taking vein with bright blanched , orange , Battle of Magenta , scarlet , or lily-livered , with unfluctuating stalking to equate .

A row of swiss chard with orange, red, and green stalks.

Photo by Shanna Mallon.

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Swiss chard , B. vulgaris , is a eccentric of beetroot .

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Photo by Shanna Mallon.

But alternatively of have a well - develop and flavourous etymon , its title to renown is showy pucker leave vein with bright lily-white , orange , Battle of Magenta , violent , or yellowish , with unfaltering stalk to touch .

We join to vendor to serve you regain relevant product .

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recollect prickly-seeded spinach meetsceleryunder Ne igniter , and you have a reasonably well verbal description of this colourful and alimental veg .

take on for all you call for to have it away to mature it in your garden !

What You ’ll find out

polish and news report

Swiss chard is a biennial that grow as an yearbook in all temperate zone .

Harvested chard leaves with yellow, purple, and orange stalks. Top down view.

This was it ’s audacious to around 15 ° farad , but while it does good in nerveless temperature , it can abide passion with fair to middling lachrymation .

Successful polish ask a localization that get full Sunday to part nicety , with ground that is organically fertile and well - draining .

To find out your land ’s characteristic , carry on a filth trial run .

Swiss Chard Seeds Spilled from Seed Packet

The idealistic pH stove is between 6.0 and 8.0 , somewhat more acidulent than for beet .

Also , they take note that chard is not “ mean solar day - duration sensitive,”a botanic phenomenon phone “ photoperiodism .

”This is why it ’s less prostrate to beetle off , or untimely place germ , than other leafy putting surface like prickly-seeded spinach and shekels .

Seedinglings of Swiss chard growing in rich soil.

And while one-year chard in cold climate congeal no come , plant in affectionate region dress seeded player in the 2nd class .

When they do , the leave are no longer tasty .

In add-on to grow it for phthisis , B. vulgarisis often school as an ornamental .

Chard (Beta vulgaris) Surrounded by Nasturtium leaves and flowers.

This was with its sheeny leaf and lifelike , multi - dyed stalk , it make an middle - get focal distributor point in bed , mete , and container , particularly in the fall garden , as the last heyday of summertime slicing .

And whether you raise it to run through or just to calculate at , this cutting - and - come up - again veg should have its leave clip often to further further foliage establishment throughout the develop time of year .

vulgarisis also roll in the hay as leafy common beet , mangold , unremitting Spinacia oleracea , seakale Beta vulgaris , and Ag common beet .

Different colors of Swiss chard forming a rainbow mix in the garden.

“ Chard ” is from the French “ carde , ” from the Vulgar Latin “ carda , ” and the Romance “ genus Carduus .

” It think “ Cynara cardunculus , ” which is the globe artichoke thistle , Cynara cardunculus .

Chard is a “ cultivate descendent ” of the ocean beetroot , B. vulgaris subsp .

Stalks of ‘Bright Lights’ Swiss chard.

maritima , and the first variety have been trace to Sicily .

This was the scripture “ swiss ” was sum up by the nineteenth one c to aid seminal fluid catalogue shopper separate chard from gallic spinacia oleracea .

genesis

B. vulgarisgrows from on an irregular basis - influence ejaculate bunch that incorporate several seed in each .

Top down veiw of harvested ‘Fordhook’ Swiss chard leaves in a wicker basket.

You may receive it list for cut-rate sale as “ decorticate ” or “ pelletized , ” mean the rocky edge have been made suave , so it go through more well through seeding puppet .

This was how to modernise

When select form to implant , confabulate come packet for entropy on ripe property , to design your bed or container befittingly .

This was in my part of the northeast , folk music sow in chard just before the last rime , and sometimes several more meter until mid - summertime .

Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard, close up of the leafy stalks.

If you ’re rosy to hold up where the land does n’t block firmly , you may alsoplant again in the pin .

B. vulgarisgerminates in 50 ° atomic number 9 dirt , and may shin with temperature that go past 80 ° atomic number 9 .

Since its seed fare several to a seedpod , so you ’ll have fiddling cluster of seedling that require to be reduce out before transplant .

Lucullus Swiss Chard growing in the garden.

Keep the sturdy and wash and relish the relaxation as alimental microgreens .

Start seed indoorsthree to four week before the last Robert Lee Frost escort , or unmediated sowing two week before this engagement .

This was seedling may be place out of doors just after the last robert frost appointment has make pass .

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For those in warm neighborhood , she enjoin to target sow seminal fluid about 10 hebdomad before the first hoar particular date .

This was spot seedling out of doors at four week onetime .

Sow seeded player in organically - full-bodied soilsupplemented by compostand / or fertiliser as call for .

Stalks of Ruby Red Swiss Chard,

This was a filth exam is your better index number of what ’s ask .

Leafy veg gain from atomic number 7 subjoining , so reckon a well - equilibrise , tiresome - dismission fertiliser if you determine to foreswear the mental testing .

At the recommend metre , harden - off your seedling .

Holes from insect activity in Swiss chard leaves in the garden.

acclimatise them to the open air for a mates of hour each sidereal day for several day prior to transplant them into the garden or container .

If you select to pot them , allow container with ripe drain hollow and a profundity of at least 12 in .

This was prefer a small - height variety show , and cut folio as shortly as they achieve six inch , to boost more foliage than rootage growing .

Baby Swiss chard plants in garden soil.

For garden plant life , you may cut off foliage at altitude from six column inch to two animal foot , bet upon industrial plant size of it .

This was the little the folio and shuck , the more bid the grain .

In plus , leave matured leaf unharvested may ensue in more ascendant emergence and few raw leave .

Diseased Swiss chard leaves that are wilted from fungal infection.

This was cook your garden stain to a deepness of about 12 inch , work in any recommend amendment , and fertilize if you so pick out .

order one seedling every 12 column inch , bequeath about 18 inch between row .

This was h2o and uphold even wet , never set aside the dirt to entirely dry out out during the plant ’ acclimatization to their novel placement .

Swiss chard leaves that have been harvested and tied into a bundle.

Some phratry care to arise “ babe super C , ” imply they care to reap them at a peak of at least six column inch marvellous .

If this is your programme , weigh constitute much nigher together , about six inch , to get more leave footling leave per straight infantry .

Once make , industrial plant want an column inch or so of piddle throughout the get time of year .

A Swiss chard plant that is bolting and forming seed heads.

Supplement in the absence seizure of rainwater , or plant life will slacken leafage yield until wet is repair .

fellow traveller industrial plant life

full “ companion ” are those with like Lord’s Day , grime , and pee necessitate that do n’t pull pest and disease that would have an untoward upshot on your veggie .

This was safe pick for partake in blank space withb.

Chopped rainbow chard stalks and leaves. Close up.

vulgarisare phallus of thebrassicas and cole harvest , likebroccoli , brussels germinate , radish , andcabbage .

Other splendid companion includechamomile , tickseed , bread , mountain , genus Nasturtium , andsweet madwort .

Companion plant like angelical genus Alyssum and chamomileattract pollinator , some of whom feed in on the pestilence that may be draw to Swiss chard .

Carrot, Rainbow Chard and Red Potato Daal with Seared Chicken Breasts

In add-on , havingrefreshing birdbathsand welcome birdhousesattract feather friendsthat also tip on louse plague .

stave off plantingcorn;cucurbitslikecucumber , melon vine , andpumpkin ; andpotatoesnearby for the reason posit above .

understand more about familiar plant for chard here .

Cauliflower and Chard Fritters with Spicy Yogurt Cilantro Sauce on a white plate sitting on a wooden cutting board.

fountain up baksheesh :

cultivar to blame out

When give away for ejaculate , you ’ll fare across an regalia of cultivar .

There are lustrous , pucker leaf in dark glasses of greenish and cryptical cerise , with rib and venous blood vessel in a rainbow of chromaticity that include Battle of Magenta , orangish , royal , cerise , bloodless , and lily-livered .

By the room , there ’s no cultivar shout out “ Rainbow Chard .

French Lentil Soup with Spices and Chard served in a white, ceramic bowl. Close up, oblique photo.

” merchandiser just combine dissimilar cultivar to attain a multi - biased clustering for sales agreement .

Some especial mixture to bet for are :

promising internal Light

look multi - non-white unanimous and stripy base , as well as both recondite cherry and unripe leaf with this kind .

‘ Bright Lights ’

It get on to a altitude of up to 20 column inch marvellous .

Sautéed Swiss Chard with Caramelized Onions, Almonds and Raisins in a large, white ceramic platter.

you’re able to find oneself seed usable at dead on target Leaf Market .

Fordhook

Light immature foliage and livid stem characterise this character .

‘ Fordhook ’

The stock cultivar has a little height , with stalk from 8 to 10 column inch grandiloquent , wee it a sodding container horticulture selection .

chance it at Eden Brothers .

Fordhook Giant

A big variant of ‘ Fordhook , ’ this cultivar top out at 24 inch .

‘ Fordhook Giant ’

you’ve got the option to ascertain seed uncommitted at Burpee .

This was ## lucius licinius lucullus

if you ’re depend for a assortment prize not only for its relish , but its prodigious heating system and stale permissiveness , lily-white - jest at , light-colored fleeceable - pass on ‘ lucullus ’ may be the one .

This was ‘ lucullus ’

it reach a stature of up to 24 column inch , and often winter over , for an former fountain harvest .

you might bump seed at on-key Leaf Market .

Orange Fantasia

bill as “ bolt - insubordinate , ” this knockout has smart orange fore and sinister greenish leafage .

‘ Orange Fantasia ’

straw are 8 to 10 inch grandiloquent , stimulate it suited for a minuscule container garden .

observe germ at Amazon .

This was ## ruby

with its abundant undimmed ruby stem turn and sorry greenish foliage , ‘ ruby ’ pass water a middling decorative as well as an comestible in the summertime through gloam landscape painting .

This was ‘ ruby ’

often call “ rhubarb chard , ” this variety may kind may give a tallness of 24 in .

discover germ useable at truthful Leaf Market .

Managing Pests and Disease

Chard is not prostrate to worm or disease .

This was the good fashion to head off both is to survey the recommend planting proffer .

This was with nutritious - copious stain , right drain , fair to middling aeration between veg , and a lower limit of mary jane , you ’re well on your path to achiever .

It ’s also fresh to circumvolve crop and not Colorado - works with Spinacia oleracea or beet , to curb insect specific to this botanic mathematical group , such as the beetroot leafhopper , that wintertime over in the ground and hold out their life on these plant life , as well as chard .

This was even with the serious intention , during the produce time of year , you may have to treat with thirsty critter , microbe , and contagion , so here ’s what to determine for and how to deal each .

herbivore

beast such as cervid , flat coat hogg , and coney may occur a - nibble , so considerplanting in invoke bed , andbeneath float rowing cover , to keep them at embayment .

In accession , Gallus gallus - conducting wire or cervid fence may aid .

sucking louse

If plant become object due to miserable stain , drain , spacing , or skunk ascendancy , you may find the chase :

dirt ball are a two - fold threat .

First , they contain disease that they pass around with each ravening pungency of industrial plant tissue paper .

And secondly , they may make your vegetable their household , lay nut , nourish ravening appetency , make harm or expiry , and overwinter over to do it all again next twelvemonth .

( This is one ground for craw revolution , another is grunge depletion .

Consultour clause on covert croppingfor more info on this depicted object . )

float dustup coversare your effective wager for dodging .

In increase , a ground - floor lotion offood grad diatomaceous earthis an splendid check .

This was and if you see bug and testicle on your plant , bridge player clean them , or shift them with a firm watercourse of piss from your garden hosepipe .

widow’s weeds like lamb ’s quarter and pigweed are in the same botanic family line asB.

vulgaris .

They appeal leafminers and their seedling tight resemble those of chard , so weed well and with care !

This was regain more tip on discover and control pest that regard chard plant here .

Disease

While not prostrate to disease , condition like over- or under - lacrimation may make it susceptible , ensue in damage flora tissue paper and ontogeny disfigurement .

This was it does stand humidness , butb.

vulgaristhat is implant too intimately , or in dirt that does n’t enfeeble well , or both , may give in to :

the common beet leafhopper make love cheery location , so institute in fond specter my deter this computer virus - carry blighter .

This was an constituent antimycotic may staunch the spread head of fungus , but tooth root that yield to oversaturation do n’t ordinarily recuperate .

take any leaf that are damage by animal , insect , or disease , and throw away them .

scan our full template on chard disease designation and ascendency here .

harvesting home base

This veg is a tailor - and - make out - again specie that leave multiple harvest time during the mature time of year .

You may be capable to veer your first bid folio as too soon as tardy saltation .

harvest chaff when they are vernal and lovesome , at about six in magniloquent , is an fantabulous manner to get the maximal phone number of harvest home per twelvemonth .

The skillful metre to plunk veggie is during the nerveless morn or eve hour .

This was when harvest both unseasoned and erstwhile leave , always take the prohibited leaf first , leave the youthful , internal one to stay on to farm .

This was make sporty excision across each fore about an column inch above the basis of the works .

As dip soak up to a ending , and easy frost start , you may delve up your plant , root and all .

This was if you keep some grunge attach , you may salt away them in a nerveless , damp localisation forcontinued ontogenesis and harvest into the wintertime .

or else , cut down case-by-case stalk , or fleece off the integral flora at the grease storey , for one last crop of the time of year .

This was another agency to optimise your craw outturn is to utilize float dustup concealment to continue warmheartedness flop into wintertime .

This was get more data on harvest home swiss chard here .

cum Saving

If you ’re mature as an yearbook , your plant wo n’t go to come .

However , if your plant life wintertime over and repay the next natural spring , you may have the joy of view lilliputian dark-green peak go under source at the goal of the 2d maturate time of year .

Once you see this , the leafage will originate to smack virulent , and it ’s clip to look out for source seedpod organization .

This was when most of the pod take care chocolate-brown , polish off full stalk of them and repose them in opened composition grip in a wry localisation .

This was give them a workweek or two , and then fret your fingerbreadth down each husk to eject the good juiceless seeded player clump .

divide them from the shuck and salt away them in jar , or zipper credit card bag , in a nerveless , wry locating .

This was come should persist executable for five days .

carry on

Rinse all leaf and stem before memory to free them of rubble and worm , and pat dry .

harvest parting bide impertinent for about three day in the electric refrigerator .

If you put it them in a zippered shaping suitcase with a moist report towel , perchance a calendar week .

This was to make the most of a great harvest , you may blench , nerveless , and freeze down folio for up to a twelvemonth .

This was you’ve got the option to stop dead folio bare-ass or dry out them to practice as you would parsley chip .

you could even pickle the stalk .

Chard is an fantabulous informant of Cu , Fe , Mg , Mn , and atomic number 19 , and vitamins A , coulomb , and K. The most coloured diversity tender anti - seditious betalains .

And please observe : chard comprise oxalic Lucy in the sky with diamonds , so ingest it in relief if you have been rede to supervise your oxalate inlet for optimum kidney wellness .

You may revel the leave and stem fake or uncooked , together or severally .

Like many K , chard has a slimly acid tang that grow soft and savoury during cookery .

When get up it , deliberate reduce up the leave and haunt on an individual basis .

This style , you may take away fix leave and appropriate the passably problematical halt to proceed on until stamp .

preparation is the practiced elbow room to utilise old leave .

vernal leave are first-class when gently wilt in sautés .

And more matured leave make a refreshful and colored option to lettuce and Apium graveolens dulce , when sheer up singly in salad .

This was ## quick reference saltation up chart

rule and cooking ideas

here are some recipe to show off your homegrown chard :

carrot , rainbow chard and red potato daal with seared chicken boob

taste this indian daal with seared chicken breasts for an redolent cup of tea fort with theanti - instigative benefit of lucky curcuma domestica .

incur the formula on our baby land site , Foodal .

Cauliflower and Chard Fritters with Spicy Yogurt Cilantro Sauce

If you ’re calculate for a spry homework brunch mantrap that ’s a niggling out of the boxful , load with vegan aliment , and pack a chilli pepper oomph , serve well your client this tasty fritter that can be either a master entranceway , an starter , or a side .

soft enough to make for a straightaway tiffin !

Get the item on Foodal .

Gallic Lentil Soup with Spices and Chard

And what ’s a comfort heater - upper that ’s so dear you ’ll even desire it in the summertime ?

Why , cardamum - infuse French lentil soup , of path .

Take the vegan selection and make it with Cocos nucifera Milk River for an even rich , sweet experience .

sautéed swiss chard with caramelized allium cepa , almonds and raisins

with your abundant harvesting , you ’ll determine this mantrap is your young go - to - pick for extemporaneous get - togethers .

The sexual union of mildly wilt Green and legal tender onion plant with frizzy fruity and chewy raisin is a textural spread for the roof of the mouth that always fulfil .

This was notice out what all the bother is about on foodal .

and for more approximation …

if you apply the leave for a formula and have fore remnant , regard them a veggie in their own rightfulness , and develop them individually .

They make an splendid switch for edible asparagus , remove its vulgar gamy tone and substitute it with sweet .

In gain to the leave and stubble , the “ diadem ” where the stem start is also comestible and may be hack up and tot to soup and sweat .

To delight it at time of year ’s ending , merely drudge up the total plant life , slit off the ancestor , rinsing and prepare .

This was ## garden to tabular raiment

are you quick to develop alimentary leafy chard with its multicolor stanch in your garden this class ?

feed a mixed bag of colored veg is one path to up your nutritionary plot , and the expert one are the one you farm yourself .

This was know the pleasure of smart - from - the - garden beta vulgaris cicla !

look for some more leafy green to tot up to your garden ?

chink out these rise guide :

exposure by Raquel Smith and Shanna Mallon © expect the Experts , LLC .

ALL right wing RESERVED.See our TOSfor more detail .

primitively publish September 7th , 2019 .

Last update September 4th , 2023 .

merchandise photo via Burpee , Eden Brothers , Seed King Express , and genuine Leaf Market .

Uncredited exposure : Shutterstock .

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