Swiss chard

Photo krossbow on Flickr · CC BY 2.0

Leafy greensPicked June – OctoberHalf-hardy · scorched by a light frost, killed at −3 °c

Swiss chard

Beta vulgaris

A beet grown for its leaves — cut it and it comes again from May until a hard frost.

Ready when
Outer leaves 20–30 cm (8–12 in) long with a glossy, crisp stalk; baby leaves at 8 cm for salad. There is no ‘mature’ date — a chard plant is ready from six weeks after sowing until frost. Leaves that have gone dull and leathery are past it; pull them off and compost them so the plant puts its effort into new growth.
How to pick
Cut or twist off the outer stalks at the base, 2–3 cm above the crown, and leave the inner four or five leaves standing. Pick a third of the plant at a time at most. For a fresh start on a tired plant, cut the whole thing 5 cm above the soil; it regrows in two or three weeks. Chard is in the same family as beets and spinach and tastes like both.
On a frost night
Leave it for a light frost: chard takes −1 to −2 °C with nothing worse than a few limp outer leaves, and keeps growing through October until nights reach about −4 °C. If the forecast says −3 °C or colder, pick the big leaves that evening and cover the crowns with a sheet or row cover; the small leaves at the centre will usually survive and give you another cutting. A hard freeze finishes the tops, but a mulched crown often sends up new leaves in April.

Where it keeps

Storing swiss chard

WhereTemperatureHumidityKeepsHow
Fridge crisper0–4 °C32–39 °Fhigh1–2 weeksUnwashed, stalks on, in a perforated bag. It wilts within hours in dry air.
In the garden under a row cover-3–10 °C27–50 °FhighInto November in zones 5–6A hoop cover or old sheet over the row on cold nights; pick on mild days.
Cold room0–2 °C32–36 °FhighAbout 2 weeksStood in a jar of water like flowers, or loose in a damp cloth.

Putting it up

What to do with too many swiss chard

Chard freezes well if you treat the leaves and stalks as two vegetables: strip the leaves, blanch them 2 minutes, squeeze and freeze in pucks for soup, pies and pasta; chop the stalks and blanch them separately, since they take longer to soften. The stalks also make a good refrigerator pickle in a tested vinegar brine. What does not work is freezing it raw — it goes slimy and bitter — or drying it, which leaves you with dust. Greens can be pressure-canned by the NCHFP recipe (70 minutes for 500 ml jars at 10 lb), but the texture is poor and the freezer is better.

  • Freezing

    The fastest route and the one that keeps flavour best.

  • Pickling

    Vinegar does the preserving; the canner just seals the jar.

Saving seed

A biennial — flowers in its second year

Chard is the same species as the beet and crosses freely with it: both are wind-pollinated and the pollen travels, so no beet or other chard may be flowering within 250 m (800 ft) in the seed year, and real purity wants 1.6 km. It is a biennial — no seed until the second summer. In zones 5–6 a heavily mulched plant often overwinters in place; elsewhere dig a few plants before a hard freeze, trim the leaves to 5 cm, store the roots in damp sand at 1–4 °C and replant in April. Save from at least five plants, better twenty. The seed stalk grows to 1.5 m; cut it when two-thirds of the seed clusters are brown, dry it on a sheet for two weeks, and strip the clusters by hand. Each ‘seed’ is a cluster of two to five true seeds, which is why chard always needs thinning.

Keeps: 4–5 years.

The seed-saving guide →

Next year

Planning swiss chard for next season

Rotate with beets and spinach (the goosefoot family): not where any of them grew last year. Chard wants full sun to light shade, soil with compost worked in, and water through dry spells — it is tough but turns bitter when parched. Direct sow 2–4 weeks before the last frost, 1–2 cm deep, when the soil is 10 °C, and thin to 20–30 cm (8–12 in) apart, eating the thinnings. One sowing lasts the year; a second in mid-July gives tender leaves for the fall. In zones 3–4 start a few plants indoors 4 weeks before the frost date for an earlier first cutting. Six plants feed a family.

Swiss chard at a glance

Botanical name
Beta vulgaris
Group
Leafy greens
Picked
June, July, August, September, October
Frost
Half-hardy: scorched by a light frost, killed at −3 °c.
Best put up as
freezing, pickling
Seed
A biennial — flowers in its second year

Questions people ask about swiss chard

Is Swiss chard frost hardy?

Partly. It takes light frosts of −1 to −2 °C and keeps growing through October until the nights reach about −4 °C; a hard freeze blackens the leaves. Cover the row with a sheet or row cover when −3 °C is forecast and you will get several more weeks. The crown often survives winter under mulch in zones 5 and up and regrows in spring, but it will bolt to seed by June.

How do I harvest chard so it keeps producing?

Take the outer leaves and leave the centre. Twist or cut each stalk off near the base, never more than a third of the plant at once, and leave at least four young leaves standing. Picked that way a plant produces from June to the first hard frost. If it gets tired or bolts, cut it off 5 cm above the soil and it will regrow.

Can you freeze Swiss chard?

Yes. Separate leaves from stalks. Blanch the leaves 2 minutes in boiling water, cool in ice water, squeeze dry and freeze in pucks or flat bags; blanch chopped stalks separately a little longer. Frozen chard is for cooked dishes. Raw-frozen chard turns slimy and bitter, so always blanch.

Why do chard seeds come up in clumps?

Because each ‘seed’ is really a dried fruit cluster holding two to five seeds, the same as beets. Sow them 5 cm apart, then thin the clumps to one plant at 20–30 cm spacing once they have two true leaves. The thinnings are good in salad.

Can I save chard seed?

Yes, but it takes two years and some space. Chard is a biennial and crosses with beets, so overwinter the plants (mulched in the ground in zone 5 and up, or dug and stored in damp sand at 1–4 °C) and let them flower the next summer with no beets or other chard flowering within 250 m. Cut the stalks when two-thirds of the seed is brown. The seed keeps 4–5 years.

Can kids eat chard straight from the garden?

Yes — rinsed, the young leaves are mild and the stalks are crunchy. Rainbow chard is the one to grow with children: red, yellow, orange and pink stems in one packet, and they can pick ‘a leaf of each colour’. Young leaves are good raw in a salad; the bigger leaves are better cooked.

Your own frost dates

When does this come in where you are?

Enter a town, postal code or ZIP and the garden year, the frost watch and this week’s guide are built from your own weather.

Also in leafy greens

Checked against these sources ·

Harvest months are typical for zones 4–6 and move by weeks north and south. Storage figures are for the ideal; a house without a cold room will get the shorter end of each range.