Growing Swiss Chard - Salad Beet

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Features of chard

I don’t know a person who, seeing chard in someone else’s garden, would not pay attention to it. This luxurious plant appeared with us long ago, but not everyone knows about it. Only a few daring gardeners grow it in their orchards.

Chard is a type of common beet. According to the content of vitamins in leaves and petioles (C, B

₁, B

₂, PP, as well as E and K) he surpasses his famous relative. They contain a lot of carotene - almost like a carrot. Leaves and petioles contain valuable minerals - calcium, phosphorus, iron, sodium, as well as sugar, and they contain more proteins than spinach. These qualities were appreciated by the ancient Romans, who were very fond of chard leaves soaked in wine with pepper. We do not know how to make this dish yet, in any case, hardly anyone has tried to make it.

Gardener's handbook

Plant

nurseries Stores of goods for summer cottages Landscape design studios

Mangold is a biennial plant. In our country, it does not always winter like that, so it is usually cultivated for one season. But even during this time, he manages to grow into a large plant and show all his beauty. The plant is prized for its long yield time.

After two months, and for the petiole form - three months after sowing, you can get a harvest, and then the collection of leaves and petioles goes until the frost. In the fall, it can be spud and the useful life extended. Some gardeners manage, by covering rosettes without large leaves with spruce branches for the winter, to receive vitamin greens from overwintered plants in early spring.

Now on sale there are seeds of many varieties of Swiss chard. They differ in the thickness and color of the petioles, which are white, silver, yellow, orange, pink and red in many shades. Among them, you can choose leafy forms - with rather thin petioles and large leaves, or you can - petiolate - with thick fleshy petioles and very large leaves. Chard leaves are beautiful: they can be wavy, bubbly, even slightly corrugated. And the whole plant is beautiful: regal posture, splendor, bright color - all this makes chard very decorative and worthy to decorate not only the beds in the ornamental garden, but also flower beds in the garden. Mangold is the perfect combination of beauty and benefit.

Notice board

Kittens for sale Puppies for sale Horses for sale

Growing chard

In terms of biological properties, Swiss chard is close to table beets. The same, even more cold-resistant, the same light-loving, and it is grown in the same ways. It can be sown with seeds, or it can be grown through seedlings.

Sowing. In the open ground, chard is sown with dry seeds in the first decade of May. They emerge already at a temperature of + 6 … + 7 ° С. In the phase of 3-4 true leaves, plants endure short-term frosts down to -3 ° C. You can re-sow in mid-June. In this case, the seeds are already soaked before sowing in a pink solution of potassium permanganate for 1-2 hours or soaked for three days in water at room temperature until they ripen. The seeding depth is 2-3 cm.

You can grow Swiss chard through seedlings. Seeds are sown in a container with soil in late March - early April. Seedlings usually appear in about 7-10 days. After that, they must be placed in a bright, cool place so that the plants do not stretch out. In the phase of the first true leaflet, the strongest plants dive. It is better not to use the weak ones further: they will not give a good harvest. Seedlings are planted in the ground in the second half of May, pre-hardened. You can land earlier, but you will have to shelter from strong night frosts if they happen.

Chard can be sown before winter - in October-November. Sometimes this experiment gives a positive result.

The planting site should be sunny, open: plants love a lot of air, space, they should be permeated with light.

The soil should be loose, very well fertilized with organic matter. Only on rich soils can succulent leaves and petioles be grown. In addition to a bucket of organic matter, a spoonful of superphosphate and some kind of potash fertilizer are added to 1 square meter of the garden. Heavy soils are not suitable. Does not like chard of excess moisture and nearby groundwater. If this is your situation, place chard on ridges or high ridges. Soil acidity - not lower than pH-6. On poor and acidic soils, something will also grow, but the harvest will be tough and hardly edible.

Leaving. Plants require a lot of moisture during the growth period. That is why the most lush specimens grow with early sowing, when there is still a lot of moisture in the soil. Without sufficient moisture, the leaves and petioles are tasteless, with a bitter taste.

When the plants become crowded, they are thinned out. Leave the distance between them 25-50 cm, depending on the variety. For the largest plants, you can leave 60 cm. If you are sowing only a few specimens of chard, then immediately leave this distance between the plants.

The best temperature for the growth and development of chard is + 16 … + 20 ° С. He tolerates heat well. This plant responds well to feeding with organic fertilizers, they should be alternated with mineral fertilizers - Azofoskaya, Nitrofoskaya, Kemira universal, as well as with trace elements - magnesium, boron, manganese. Top dressing works especially well in the first half of the growing season. Chard grows on well-filled soils without any additional fertilizing. The emerging flower stems must be removed.

Harvest … Petioles and leaves reach their largest size 2-3 months after sowing. Leaves can be cut selectively, as needed, or they can be cut completely, several times per season. New leaves grow back very quickly. The first cut is done when the plant develops at least 5-7 leaves. It is noticed: the more often we cut the leaves, the faster new ones grow. Of course, after each cut, the plants must be fed, preferably with organic fertilizers. The general rule is this: you need to cut off young leaves. The older they are, the rougher they are. The leaves must be cut off immediately before use, they are healthier than those lying on the kitchen table for even one hour. Leaves can remain in the refrigerator for up to two days, but also with a loss of biological activity.

In the fall, you can dig up plants, and, removing old and large leaves, plant them in pots. Then you need to put the pots on the windowsill in the brightest place, not forgetting that with a lack of light, plants are prone to accumulation of nitrates. By driving out Swiss chard greens in winter, you will have a living dietary supplement to your daily food.

Read the next part. Chard Recipes →

Lyubov Bobrovskaya

Author's photo