swiss chard question

tenplay · Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:04 pm

I planted several swiss chard plants last year and enjoyed eating them last summer. They miraculously survived the winter here in Washington state. But they grew tall and skinny with very small leaves this year. How can I get them to produce the larger leaves again? Pruning or replacing with new starter plants? Thanks for any advice.

DoubleDogFarm · Sun Jul 01, 2012 12:15 pm

Time to replant or leave them to self sow. They have gone to seed.

Eric

gixxerific · Sun Jul 01, 2012 2:13 pm

Yeah what Eric said.

Good thing is they give enough seed from one plant to keep you in Swiss Chard for the rest of your life, possibly your childrens lifetime as well.

Avonnow · Tue Jul 10, 2012 10:14 pm

I am glad to read this on the abundance of seeds, I didn't realize they produced so many. I think I wlll allow mine to go to seed next time.

rainbowgardener · Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:10 am

Yeah, letting one plant go to seed will give you tons of seed. But I am discovering that the going to seed process is quite slow. I have a couple of last year's swiss chard that bolted a couple months ago, and has been covered in seed for a long time, but the seed is being slow to ripen.

It means you have to keep this extremely tall, huge and otherwise useless plant hanging around in your garden for a long time, waiting for the seeds to mature.

Avonnow · Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:09 am

The plants I put in last year hung around producing for months, I would cut and use, cut and use. Finally I just wanted something new. I will put them in a pot so I can move the unsightly plant out of the way, but the thought of a bumper crop of seed has me intrigued. I love collecting seed, it is my new fascination with my garden, truly learning alot.

gixxerific · Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:13 pm

Avonnow you say you are happy about the abundance of seed and its your new passion well this should be right up your alley. Every one of those little fluffy things are seed pods. Crazy thing is the seeds are actually multiple seeds in one, take at a look at one.

Here are a few pics of one I left to seed. I took 3 others out it was just way too much.

If I had to guess on this one plant I would say a thousand seeds maybe two. Dare I say possibly 3 - 4.

[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC05902.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC05903.jpg[/img]
[img]https://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj185/gixxerific/Gardening/DSC05904.jpg[/img]

gixxerific · Wed Jul 11, 2012 4:23 pm

Just to add to RainbowG they do take some time. Though not all of of them. I staked that plant up month's ago but it fell over. I figured it would take a while and I would get to it later in the season, you know let it do it's thing. It's huge and the stalk is about 2 in. wide. I had to pick it up for the pictures and re-set it. There was a ton of seed falling yet other sections that are not ready.

Really it was raining seed, guess I'm going to have a boat load of Swiss Chard next year.

applestar · Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:38 pm

I think you'll probably have them sprouting this fall or as soon as the weather is favorable to germinate.

Right now, I have tons of baby Russian Red Kale growing... in the garden path.

rainbowgardener · Wed Jul 11, 2012 10:49 pm

This spring I had a leaf lettuce pop up in my garden path from last year's gone to seed lettuce. I thought it was cute and left it there.

jal_ut · Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:12 am

Beets and chard are actually the same species of plant. Yes, you can get a truckload of seed from one plant. I kept a large beet root through winter in my pit then planted it this spring to go to seed. These plants are biennial so they bloom the second year. I wonder if you could keep a chard root in the pit too for next years seed? Things like that don't make winter if left in the ground. Too cold for them here.

SarahSarah · Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:16 pm

You know, I have zero luck growing chard from seed. I've tried different locations all over the garden, yet they never grow past about 6 inches. I love chard, so I'd love to be able to grow it.

rainbowgardener · Thu Jul 12, 2012 12:55 pm

SarahSarah wrote:You know, I have zero luck growing chard from seed. I've tried different locations all over the garden, yet they never grow past about 6 inches. I love chard, so I'd love to be able to grow it.

Wow ... chard is the easiest thing to grow in my garden and gets huge. I grow the Bright Lights Rainbow Chard and haven't tried other varieties. I can say that the bed they are in gets mainly only morning and maybe a bit of early afternoon sun, but definitely not full sun or hot afternoon sun. This year I also planted some in a new bed that is in full sun. Those have been kind of stunted, but I was assuming that was from triple digit heat and drought and the fact that I haven't been able to water that bed (community garden plot not at my house) nearly often enough. Also, I plant chard very early in the spring, so they are good sized before the hot weather strikes.

I plant them in good soil and then don't do anything else to them except keep them watered as needed.

Don't know if any of that helps.

tenplay · Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:00 pm

Your experience of growing chard successfully in partial sun is encouraging. I have a large section of the back yard that is in the full sun only until noon or so. I have been reluctant to plant anything there because of the limited sun.

How does chard fare with slugs, which we have a lot of here in Western Washington state? Thanks.

rainbowgardener · Thu Jul 12, 2012 1:11 pm

Can't give guarantees, but my chard is not bothered by them, even though my peppers and broccoli tend to get eaten up by slugs. One of the things I love about chard is that nothing seems to bother it, not pests nor any diseases.... But I can't say that everyone has the same experience.

tenplay · Thu Jul 12, 2012 5:29 pm

So now I have three large chard plants that have gone to seed. Should I cut them down and place the hundreds of seeds in the ground now? Or should I just let them complete the natural process of falling to the ground in a few weeks or months? It is just starting to heat up here in Western Washington with almost 3 months left in the growing season.

cynthia_h · Thu Jul 12, 2012 9:59 pm

tenplay wrote:Your experience of growing chard successfully in partial sun is encouraging. I have a large section of the back yard that is in the full sun only until noon or so. I have been reluctant to plant anything there because of the limited sun.

How does chard fare with slugs, which we have a lot of here in Western Washington state? Thanks.

When I have young chard plants, I monitor them regularly for snail/slug attacks. The snails/slugs like these plants as much as we do. Alas. Once the chard has attained full size, it can afford to give up some of its mass to the gastropods, but why let them enjoy the fruits of *your* labors? At that point, I look to my chard as a snail/slug attractor, and have very successful Snail Hunts.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

cynthia_h · Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:01 pm

tenplay wrote:So now I have three large chard plants that have gone to seed. Should I cut them down and place the hundreds of seeds in the ground now? Or should I just let them complete the natural process of falling to the ground in a few weeks or months? It is just starting to heat up here in Western Washington with almost 3 months left in the growing season.

If you look closely at the seeds, they may still be green. Mature seeds, ready to fall on the ground and spring up as new chardlings, will be dry and brown. It takes maybe eight (?) or ten (?) weeks from when the seeds first appear, as shown in the photos upthread, to when they start to look dried and brown. I still have one chard plant in raised Bed #1 whose seeds aren't completely dry, but I was harvesting leaves from this one as recently as March or April, when I finally stopped cutting it back and let it go to seed.

Cynthia H.

Bobberman · Fri Jul 13, 2012 12:15 am

I have had swiss chard in m greenhouse for three years now. One is in a wash tub and has been producing for 2 years in 100 degree heat but I let the tub get too dry and it started to go to seed but cutting the top will give you more leaves on more stems! The leaves are smallr but stll etnder. I have aplant in the greenhouse with 5 off shoots with a 100 or more small leaves and ts three years old.
+++
I feed the rabbits chard they love it! I think as long as you keep the chard watered good it will not go seed as fast! I think also that plnanting chard with companion plants helps it grow better! I will put some chad in my lettuce bed and when the lettuce is done I have lots of chard to trans plant! The bright lights is my favorite also! My cold frame early lettuce did good with the chard!

tenplay · Wed Aug 01, 2012 11:59 am

I am the OP that started this thread. So now at the end of July, I still have several tall stalks of Swiss chard not producing any usable leaves. In Western Washington, we still have a couple of months in the growing season. What should I do next? Should I chop them down to around 4 inches and hope to get some leaf growth this year? Should I just leave them alone and hope that the seeds fall to the ground and germinate next spring? Thanks for any advice.

cynthia_h · Wed Aug 01, 2012 5:55 pm

If you have any chard seeds left from when these plants were planted, go ahead and plant those seeds.

The seeds the plants are sending up right now won't mature for several weeks. That will be the time to either collect the seeds in a pillowcase or (as I did) shake the stalk over prepared ground/raised bed and await results.

Cynthia

tenplay · Wed Aug 01, 2012 8:51 pm

I actually planted the chard starts in the spring of 2011 and was surprised to see the chard stalks shoot up again this year. So I don't have any old seeds. All I have are the tall stalks with seeds attached. Someone had mentioned in another thread that she had simply cut the tall stalks off at 2 inches from which new edible leaves appeared. So I was wondering if I could do the same and still enjoy some chard this year. For next year I can collect the seeds and replant them as you suggest. What do you think?

cynthia_h · Thu Aug 02, 2012 2:25 pm

[laying all cards on the table]

I haven't had the nerve to whack my chard plants off before the seeds are mature. If I had a strong hankering for more chard right now, before the seeds were mature, and I planted them, and new plants came up, etc., I'd just go to an independent nursery and buy some starts. The fall veggie starts should be in. But call ahead, to be sure. This is the more expensive route, but has a shorter timeline to maturity/edibility.

If you can wait a couple of weeks, buy a packet of seeds.

Your plantlings will come up soon.

Cynthia

jal_ut · Thu Aug 02, 2012 3:48 pm

Chard. The part we eat is greens. Ya, lots of nitrogen makes lots of greens. Also, remember that thing we call a seed is actually a capsule with several seeds in it. We do need to thin to one plant every 4 inches apart in the row if we want nice big leaves.

We had a rather unusual winter here last winter, and I have two chard plants that wintered over. They are loaded with seed. It takes quite a while for the seed to be ready to harvest, but I am sure it will happen.

rainbowgardener · Fri Aug 03, 2012 5:59 am

Yeah I'm discovering that time lag. Seems like months since last year's chard bolted and started making seed, but it is still not ready yet. In the meantime they are behemoths taking up room in my small garden. Next year I will only let ONE go to seed!

gixxerific · Fri Aug 03, 2012 6:02 am

rainbowgardener wrote:Yeah I'm discovering that time lag. Seems like months since last year's chard bolted and started making seed, but it is still not ready yet. In the meantime they are behemoths taking up room in my small garden. Next year I will only let ONE go to seed!

Right there with you RBG. I had 3 plants going to seed. Two of them have been removed a long time ago. There is enough seed on one plant to last a lifetime. On my plant some are ready and some are not.