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Beetroot Chard. Biological Features, Varieties And Cultivation Of Chard
Beetroot Chard. Biological Features, Varieties And Cultivation Of Chard

Video: Beetroot Chard. Biological Features, Varieties And Cultivation Of Chard

Video: Beetroot Chard. Biological Features, Varieties And Cultivation Of Chard
Video: Growing Chard from Sowing to Harvest 2024, March
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Features of growing leaf beets

Beetroot chard
Beetroot chard

The ancestor of the root beet, both sugar and table beets, is the wild chard, a native of the Mediterranean. Long before the emergence of root-bearing forms, beetroot was cultivated. The islands of Sicily, Cyprus, Crete are one of the first centers of distribution of the leaf beet. From here, the beetroot spread to Western Asia, North Africa and the Caucasus.

During the expeditions, NI Vavilov collected samples of leaf beet called "silk" in the countries of its ancient culture (Mediterranean islands, Transcaucasia, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia). For its wide silver-milky and bright orange petioles, it was named "chard".

Beet Swiss chard forms thick stalks used for food. Mangold is now widespread: in Western Europe, South America, Japan, India, Korea.

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The value of chard

In culture, two forms of chard are used - leaf and petiolate, differing in the size of the leaf blades and the width of the petioles. There are varieties with silvery, yellow, red and green petioles.

Beet Swiss chard is used as a spinach plant with a large mass of leaves and petioles. Chard dishes are famous for their good taste. Boiled, fried and stewed chard stalks are considered a delicacy. Red-peaked varieties are more often used in botvinia. Chard leaves are eaten fresh or boiled for salads, soups and other dishes, and in green-leaved varieties they are more often used in salads.

Swiss chard beet has a high taste. It is rich in protein and sugars. Mangold is prized for its vitamin-rich leaves and petioles. In terms of their content, it surpasses beetroot. They contain up to 50 ascorbic acid, and up to 4 mg of carotene, provitamin A per 100 g of raw material. In addition, this vegetable plant is distinguished by the fact that it contains a lot of calcium, phosphorus and iron salts.

Young leaves and petioles grown from small roots and Swiss chard roots are used in greenhouses in early spring. Although the roots are not used for food, they contain up to 24-28% dry matter, 12-17% sugars and 8% fiber. Chard beets are nutritious animal feed. It grows back quickly after mowing and produces an abundant mass of tops. Due to the variety of original plant colors and different forms of leaves, chard beets have found their use for decorative purposes.

Biological features of beet Swiss chard

Botanical differences. In the culture, chard is a biennial plant. In the first year of life, forms a thickened, often branched root and rosette of leaves, in the second - stems, flowers and seeds. Chard is characterized by a large rosette with various colors: milky white, green, yellow, orange and red leaves with wide petioles 6-8 cm (up to 10-15 cm). The surface of the leaf blades is often wavy or corrugated. The color of the petioles is green, silver, orange or red. Petioles often make up 50–60% of the aboveground mass. Chard roots are usually inedible.

Requirements for growing conditions. In terms of biological qualities, chard is not much different from root beet. The zoned varieties are relatively cold-resistant, can withstand short temperature drops in spring and autumn, and are resistant to flowers. Beet Swiss chard is a light-loving plant. Delay in thinning sharply slows down growth, development and reduces the yield. Plants are capable of tolerating slight drought, but a powerful leaf rosette can only be obtained with good moisture supply. Chard beets are demanding on soil fertility and do not tolerate the increased acidity of the soil solution.

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Growing beet Swiss chard

Varieties. The State Register includes five varieties of chard beet: Scarlet, Red, Krasavitsa - red-peted, Belavinka - silver-peeled and Green - green-peted.

Soil preparation. For sowing, a fertile, loose, well-moistened area is selected. The soil is prepared in the same way as for table beets.

Seed preparation and sowing. Seeds are soaked in water at room temperature for two or three days before sowing. They are sown on ridges or ridges with row spacing of 40–45 (up to 60) cm, to a depth of 3–4 cm. The seeding rate of Swiss chard beet seeds is 1–1.5 g per 1 m². The seeding depth is 2–3 cm. To obtain early production, sowing with germinated seeds or planting seedlings grown in pots with a distance in a row of 20–25 cm are used in spring.

Sowing chard in the winter makes it possible to get early production. It is carried out in the fall before the onset of permanent frosts (-4 … -5 ° C), approximately in mid-November. For this, the beds are made in advance and the sowing furrows are prepared on them. The sown seeds are covered with peat or rotted manure (humus) from above.

Care and harvesting. The techniques for caring for chard plants are the same as for beetroot. With a sharp change in rainy and dry weather, a crust may form on soil that is structureless, prone to swimming, which prevents the emergence of Swiss chard. For its destruction, light loosening with a rake across the rows is used. Thin the plants twice as they grow. In leafy varieties, after the second thinning, the distance between plants is 18–20 cm, in petiole varieties, 25–35 cm.

The readiness for harvesting of leafy chard varieties occurs 2–2.5 months after germination, petiolate varieties - in three months. Chard leaves are removed either selectively, cutting out large leaves with petioles as they grow, or at the same time, cutting off the entire aerial mass. It is important not to stain the leaves when cleaning.

Beetroot chard
Beetroot chard

Growing beets on a leaf in greenhouses

In greenhouses, two types of beets are grown: table beet - to obtain a young rosette of leaves and chard - to obtain fleshy juicy petioles and young leaves. Beets are valued for juicy roots and partially for young leaves, while Swiss chard beets are valued for their petioles, which often make up 50-60% of the aboveground mass and young leaf blades (their roots are usually inedible). Table beets in greenhouses are cultivated by planting seedlings and by forcing, sometimes by sowing seeds.

The seedling method is used to obtain products at an early time. When growing seedlings, the soil must have an adequate supply of nutrients. In protected ground, early ripening, high-yielding varieties of table beets with a large rosette of leaves are grown: Cold-resistant 19, Gribovskaya flat, Bordeaux 237, Pushkinskaya flat K-18 and Swiss chard: Krasnochereshkovy, Serebristochereshkovy, Spinach.

Only beet seedlings can be used as a cucumber or tomato compactor. With the seedling method, potless seedlings of 25-30 days are used. It is planted with a distance between rows of 10 cm, in a row of 5–8 cm, that is, 150–200 pieces. per 1 m², and when grown as a sealant 70–100 pieces.

In 7-10 days after rooting of seedlings, the first liquid feeding is carried out (15-20 g of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers per bucket of water). After 15–20 days, feeding is repeated.

The harvesting of table beets is started when the plants form a root crop that has reached the size of a walnut, that is, 40-50 days after planting the seedlings. The yield when growing beets per leaf is 3-4 kg per 1 m², when grown as a compactor - 1.5-2 kg.

For forcing beetroot small, non-marketable beetroots weighing 30-60 g are suitable, which are harvested in autumn and stored in storage until late December - early January. Before planting, diseased and severely wilted roots are removed. Beets are planted in winter greenhouses in a bridge way (close to each other), without covering the apical buds with earth. For 1 m², 4–8 kg of planting material is required. The roots, so that they do not bend when planting, pinch or cut to 1 / 4-1 / 3 of the length. The soil around the root crops is compacted and watered abundantly with warm water. Under optimal conditions of moisture (70% PPV) and temperature (+ 20… + 25 ° С) of the soil, 2–3 days after planting, intensive regrowth of leaves begins.

Beets are driven out, like celery and parsley, at a temperature of + 18 … + 20 ° C. Plants are watered once every 8-10 days. Distillation lasts 35–45 days. From 1 m², 5-6 kg of products are obtained. The day before harvesting, the beets are watered abundantly with water. When the leaves dry up, the plants are dug up along with the roots.

Beetroot vegetables along with leaves can be kept fresh for a long time in a cool room and in the refrigerator, especially when packed in plastic bags. It should be remembered that these products are not in demand before December.

Chard beet with great effect can be used for forcing leaves in winter-spring in protected ground.

Root crops for distillation, 30–50 g in size, are grown by sowing seeds in the open field in late May - early June. Seedlings are thinned out every 10–15 cm. The harvested roots are packed in plastic bags or boxes and stored at 0 … + 1 ° С. They are planted in greenhouses in late December - early January.

Beetroot chard
Beetroot chard

Chard beets are planted using a bridge method, for which the plants are placed close to the ground. Covering root crops with soil, their heads with buds are not covered with earth in order to avoid putrefactive diseases. On 1 m² there are 70–100 pieces of roots, which equals, depending on the size, 15–25 kg. The temperature in the room during the forcing of greens should be + 20 … + 25 ° С, the relative humidity of the air - about 70%.

Chard is harvested by making 2-3 cuts of leaf stalks. The first cut is usually 30–40 days after planting. After 2–3 weeks, the leaves grow back, cutting can be repeated.

During the forcing period, chard forms 13–18 leaves of a rather large size. The length of the leaf reaches 40 cm, the width is 15 cm. The yield increase (due to the formation of leaves) can be from 5 to 25%, depending on the period of forcing. The yield of leaves when forcing is 7–12 kg per 1 m² for one cut, for 2-3 cuts it can reach 22–26 kg per 1 m². Good results are obtained when using the Serebrischereshkovy variety for forcing. Plants harvested by the roots can be kept fresh for a long time in cool rooms and refrigerators.

Cut leaves of chard wither quickly, so it is harvested as needed. For a short time, the leaves can be stored moisturized in plastic bags. For a long time (1–2 weeks), Swiss chard leaves should be stored loosely in plastic bags in the refrigerator, or even better, in an artificially controlled atmosphere. Chard leaves do well with transportation.

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