How to grow Swiss chard

Buy fresh chard seed from a known, registered dealer, and check the packing date on the packet — buy this season's seed, because last year's leftover chard seed sprouts poorly and unevenly.

Know what you are buying: ordinary chard seed is a knobbly ball holding several seeds, so each ball sprouts a clump of 2-4 seedlings you must thin later. If you can get a monogerm (single-seed) type, one seed makes one plant and you skip the thinning altogether.

Buy a little extra — enough to run a quick sprouting test (lay a few seeds on a damp cloth for a week and count how many wake up) and to fill any gaps.

Keep the seed cool, dry and out of the sun until sowing day, so it stays alive and ready.

Pick a sunny, well-drained spot — chard's roots rot in soil that stays wet, so keep off low patches where water pools after rain.

Dig the bed over one spade deep (about 20 cm) and break up the clods, so roots go down easily and rain soaks in instead of running off.

Spread well-rotted manure or compost — dark, crumbly, no strong smell — and fork it into the topsoil. A full wheelbarrow (about 50 kg) feeds a ten-stride by ten-stride patch (about 100 m², a square ten paces each way); spread more on poor, sandy soil.

Work in a balanced handful of compound fertiliser as well — it covers the potassium chard leans on for strong, juicy stalks (your recommendation gives the exact amount for your bed).

Rake the top into a fine, crumbly bed. If your soil or water is salty, water it through with clean water first so the surface is low in salt and the seed can sprout.

Sow on moist soil and keep it damp every day — chard is slow to wake up, taking about 5-7 days to show in warm soil, and longer when it is cold.

Draw shallow drills (little furrows) about half a stride apart (≈50 cm; anywhere from 45 to 60 cm is fine).

Drop the seedballs along each row about a hand-span apart (≈25-30 cm) and cover them about 2 cm deep — no deeper than the top joint of your thumb. Too deep and they struggle to push up; too shallow and they dry out.

Firm the soil gently over every ball with your hand, so it sits snug against moist earth and sprouts strongly.

Remember each ordinary seedball is a cluster — expect 2-4 seedlings to come up together at every spot, which you will thin next week. (A monogerm type comes up one plant per seed — no thinning.)

Thin about 1-2 weeks after sowing (day 7-14), once each seedling has its two true leaves — the second pair, the ones that look like real chard leaves rather than the first round seed-leaves.

At each spot, pick the single strongest, sturdiest seedling to keep, and remove all the rest.

Snip or pinch the extras off at ground level — do not pull them, or you tear the roots of the one you are keeping.

Aim for one plant every hand-span along the row (≈25-30 cm), with half a stride between rows (≈50 cm) — the very spacing you sowed at.

Don't waste the thinnings — the little leaves are good to eat, so rinse and cook them like any tender green.

If it fails — you left thinning late and the plants are already crowded and leggy — thin anyway, at once. A slightly set-back single plant still beats a choked clump every time.

From a few days after sowing, walk the bed every 3-4 days and look closely at the young seedlings, right across the bed — not just the row by the path.

Flea beetles: look for lots of tiny round pin-holes ('shot-holes') peppering the young leaves, and tiny dark beetles that hop away the moment you touch the plants. A bad attack can shred small seedlings to lace.

Cutworms: look for seedlings cut clean off at ground level overnight. Scratch the soil around a cut plant to find the culprit — a fat, greyish, curled-up caterpillar hiding just under the surface.

Damping-off: look for seedlings that suddenly topple over, pinched thin, dark and wet right at the soil line, often collapsing in a spreading patch. It is driven by wet, airless soil.

If it fails — you find damping-off spreading — ease right off the watering and let the surface dry between waterings; keep the worst patch driest, and don't re-sow into the same soggy spot until it has dried out.

Start feeding about 2 weeks after sowing, once the plants are up and growing away, and repeat every 2 weeks.

Lay the nitrogen as a thin band along the row, about a hand's width (≈10 cm) to the side of the plants — close enough for the roots to reach, but not touching the stems, or it scorches them. Your recommendation gives the amount.

Feed onto moist soil (after watering or light rain) and water it in, so it soaks down to the roots instead of gassing off into the air and going to waste.

Keep the fertiliser off the leaves — brush any grains off, because these are leaves you will eat, and grains stuck on wet leaves burn holes in them.

Wash your hands afterwards, and keep the bag off food, off water, and away from children.

Weed from about 2 weeks after sowing, and again every 2-3 weeks while the plants are still small and open to competition.

Hoe shallowly — chard's feeding roots run just under the surface, so deep hoeing near the plants slices them.

Pull the weeds closest to the stems by hand, so you don't nick the plant you are growing.

Lay a mulch (dry grass, straw or leaves) between the plants to hold moisture and smother new weeds — but keep it a hand's width clear of the stems, so they don't sit damp and rot.

Once a week, walk the bed and turn over leaves on plants right across it — not just the edge by the path.

Cercospora leaf spot: look for round, pale-tan spots the size of a match-head, each ringed with a reddish-purple border, on the older leaves. In warm, muggy, damp weather they multiply until the leaves look peppered and dry up. Pick off and bin or burn the first spotted leaves — never drop them in the bed or the compost.

Leaf miner: look for pale, winding tunnels or papery blotches inside the leaf, between its top and bottom skin. Squash the little grub inside the tunnel, and pick off and destroy badly-mined leaves the moment you see them.

Aphids: look for clusters of tiny soft green or black insects packed on the undersides of leaves and in the young centre, sometimes with a sticky, shiny film (honeydew — the sweet mess they leave behind). Rub out the first colonies by hand — they breed fast and spread virus.

Downy mildew (in cool, damp spells): look for pale yellow patches on top of a leaf with a greyish-purple furry mould underneath. Pick off the affected leaves and open up the airflow between plants.

Boron hunger: look for black, corky patches in the stalks, cracked stalks, or a blackened, dying central heart — chard is prone to it. A very light boron feed fixes it: a tiny pinch of borax dissolved in plenty of water. Go sparingly — too much boron is a poison to the plant.

Early bolting: look for the centre pushing up a thick stalk while the newest leaves turn small and narrow, almost arrow-shaped — note it, and see the bolting task in the harvest stage.

If anything is spreading, act at once — pick off and destroy the worst leaves, and open the matching pest or disease guide.

Keep the bed evenly moist — water about every 5-7 days, and more often in heat or on sandy soil that dries out fast.

Check with a finger: water when the top few centimetres are dry.

Water at the base of the plants, in the cool of the morning or evening, so the leaves dry off quickly and less water is lost to the sun.

Never let the bed dry right out, and never let it sit waterlogged — chard's roots rot in standing water, so drain any low, boggy spots.

Start the first cut about 6-8 weeks after sowing (day 45-60), once the outer leaves are a good hand-span long (≈25 cm), then pick every 1-2 weeks after that.

Take only the outer, oldest leaves — the big ones on the outside. Leave the small young leaves and the central growing point (the spot in the very middle where new leaves push out) completely alone.

Cut or snap each leaf off low, about a finger-joint above the crown (≈4 cm) — the crown is the base where all the stalks meet — so you never wound the centre.

Never take more than one leaf in three at a single cut. Leaving two-thirds of the leaves keeps the plant strong enough to grow the next flush.

As you pick, remove and bin any spotted (Cercospora) or aphid-covered outer leaves — harvesting is also your clean-up.

Snap off any flower stalk rising from the centre the moment you see it (see the bolting task) — it turns the leaves bitter and stops new growth.

Pick in the cool of the morning when the leaves are crisp and full of water, and get them into shade straight away.

After a cut (every 2-3 weeks), give a light nitrogen feed and a good watering to power the next flush of leaf.

Scatter or band the feed around the plants, water it in, and keep it off the leaves you will eat. Your recommendation gives the amount.

Wait a few days after feeding before you cut again — this is the pre-harvest interval, the safe gap between treating a crop and eating from it — so the leaves aren't loaded with fresh nitrate.

Keep the water steady between feeds; hungry, thirsty plants bolt sooner and turn bitter.

Wash your hands after feeding, and keep the fertiliser off food, off water, and away from children.

From about 2 months after sowing, and every time you pick, check the centre of each plant for a flower stalk starting.

Look for the middle pushing up a thick, fast-growing stalk, with the newest leaves turning small and narrow, almost arrow-shaped — that is bolting beginning.

Snap or cut the stalk right out at its base as soon as you spot it, before it opens into flower.

Keep the plant well fed and evenly watered — cold snaps, drought stress and plain old age all push chard to bolt, so steady care holds it off longest.

If it fails — a plant bolts hard and its leaves have gone bitter and tough despite removing the stalk — it is done. Pull it, eat or sell what is still usable, and let its neighbours carry the harvest on.

Cut in the cool of the early morning, when the leaves are full of water and crisp — never in the midday heat.

Get the cut leaves into shade straight away — never leave them lying in the sun, even for a few minutes.

Cool them down — dip or sprinkle them with clean, cool water and keep them in a shaded, airy spot or a cool room.

Keep them damp and bunched, and move them to market or the pot as fast as you can — chard does not keep like a bag of grain does.

Trim off any yellow, spotted or bruised leaves before you bunch, so the whole bundle looks fresh and lasts longer on the stall.