How to Grow Swiss Chard From Seeds

Swiss chard, a cool-season leafy green, produces edible stalks and leaves. It's valued as a cooked green. Standard varieties have deep green leaves with white ribs and stalks while more exotic varieties have red or yellow ribs and stalks. Chard grows best in sunny locations in the cooler spring season. You can also grow it as a fall crop if you plant it outdoors after average daily temperatures drop below 75 degrees Fahrenheit. The plants germinate and grow quickly, so it it's typically seeded directly in the garden bed.

Composted manure
Spade
21-0-0 fertilizer

Instructions

- 1
  Prepare the garden bed once soil temperatures reach 40 degrees Fahrenheit in spring. Spread 2 inches of composted manure over the garden bed and turn it into the top 6 inches of soil with a spade.
- 2
  Water the bed until it's evenly moist but not wet or muddy. Spring soils may not require irrigation if the soil remains moist from winter.
- 3
  Sow the Swiss chard seeds 1/2 inch deep. Sow approximately eight seeds per foot of row. Space the rows 12 inches apart.
- 4
  Thin the chard plants after they sprout and once the seedlings produce their third set of leaves. Pluck out the excess plants so the remaining chard is spaced approximately 6 inches apart in the row.
- 5
  Water the chard once weekly or as necessary to maintain moisture in the top 6 inches of soil. Chard requires 1 to 2 inches of water a week.
- 6
  Side-dress the chard with ½ cup of 21-0-0 fertilizer for each 10-foot row one month after thinning. Sprinkle the fertilizer down the row 6 inches from the base of the plants. Water the bed immediately after fertilizing.
- 7
  Harvest the outer leaves once they reach the desired size, leaving the interior leaves on the plant to continue growing. Alternatively, cut off all the leaves 2 inches above the crown. The crown grows back new foliage later in the growing season.

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