Chard Donation Tracker

Quick Links: How & Where to Grow | Temperature | How to Care For | Harvest Signs | Harvesting | Pruning | Pests | Companions | Varieties | Preservation | Recipes | Michigan Tips | Fun Facts

🌱 How & Where to Grow Swiss Chard:

• Direct sow when soil 40°F.
• Succession plant through July – chard thrives in heat when lettuce bolts!
• Space plants 6-12 inches apart in rows 18 inches apart.
• Sunlight: Full sun to partial shade (4-6 hours minimum).
• Soil Type: Rich, well-drained soil with pH 6.0-7.0.
• Soil Amendment: Moderate compost – not as hungry as spinach

Swiss chard is the rainbow of the garden – beautiful, nutritious, and incredibly easy to grow!

🌡️ Temperature Guidance:

Plant at 40°F soil. Thrives in summer heat to 85°F!

• Spring planting: As soon as soil can be worked.
• Heat tolerance: Continues producing through summer.
• Young plants tolerate light frost.
• Mature plants survive 20°F with protection.

Swiss chard bridges the gap between cool-season greens and summer vegetables!

💧 How to Care for:

• Consistent Moisture: Maintains tender leaves.
• Watering: 1-1.5 inches weekly for continuous growth.
• Mulch: 2-3 inches to retain moisture and suppress weeds.
• Fertilizer: Light monthly feeding keeps production high.
• Thinning: Use thinnings in salads!

📏 Harvest Signs:

Baby: 30 days. Mature: 45-60 days. Cut outer leaves first.

• Swiss chard is a cut-and-come-again crop – harvest regularly!
• Baby leaves perfect at 4-6 inches for salads.
• Mature leaves can reach 12-18 inches.
• Stems fully colored when mature.

The more you harvest, the more it produces – don’t be shy!

🧺 Harvesting:

Cut outer leaves at base. Leave center 4-5 leaves. Morning best.

• Always harvest outer leaves first.
• Cut at soil level with knife or scissors.
• Never strip bare – leave growing center.
• Can harvest individual leaves or whole plant.
• Stems and leaves both edible – don’t waste!

✂️ Pruning:

Remove damaged leaves. Cut flower stalks. Rejuvenate old plants.

• Remove yellowing or damaged outer leaves.
• Cut flower stalks immediately if they appear.
• Rejuvenate tired plants by cutting to 3 inches.
• Clean up regularly for disease prevention.
• Summer trim encourages fresh growth.

🪲 Michigan Pests:

Flea beetles, leaf miners, aphids, slugs.

• Leaf miners – create tunnels in leaves. Remove affected leaves.
• Flea beetles – tiny holes in young plants. Row covers help.
• Aphids – occasional problem, blast with water.
• Slugs – love chard! Use beer traps or diatomaceous earth.

🫱🏽‍🫲🏼 Companions:

Alliums, beans, brassicas, tomatoes. Avoid most herbs, corn.

• Onions and garlic help repel pests.
• Beans fix nitrogen for leafy growth.
• Brassicas share similar growing needs.
• Lettuce grows well in chard’s shade.
• Avoid herbs – many stunt chard growth.

🌈 Varieties:

‘Bright Lights’, ‘Fordhook Giant’, ‘Ruby Red’.

• ‘Bright Lights’: 60 days, rainbow of stem colors.
• ‘Fordhook Giant’: 60 days, white stems, heavy producer.
• ‘Ruby Red’: 59 days, deep red stems, ornamental.
• ‘Lucullus’: 50 days, heirloom, crinkled leaves.
• ‘Peppermint’: 60 days, pink and white striped stems.

🫙 Preservation:

Fresh 1 week. Freeze blanched. Dehydrate. Ferment.

• Fresh storage: Unwashed in plastic bag, 1 week.
• Freezing: Blanch 2 minutes, freeze in portions.
• Separate stems – they need longer blanching.
• Dehydrate: Makes nutritious chips or powder.
• Ferment: Like sauerkraut for probiotics.
• Pickle stems: Beautiful pickled chard stems!

🧑🏽‍🍳 Recipes:

Sautéed with garlic, white bean soup, chard quesadillas, stem hummus.

• Simple sautéed chard with garlic and lemon.
• White bean and chard soup – hearty comfort food.
• Chard and ricotta stuffed shells.
• Rainbow chard stem hummus – don’t waste those stems!
• Swiss chard gratin with gruyere.

✋🏼 Michigan Tips:

• Plant early and succession plant monthly.
• Thrives through Michigan’s hot, humid summers.
• Fall plantings survive light freezes.
• Grows when spinach and lettuce bolt.
• Rainbow varieties add garden beauty.
• One planting produces for months!

🧠 Fun Facts:

• Not from Switzerland.
• Same species as beets.
• One plant produces pounds of food.
• Actually native to the Mediterranean – “Swiss” was added to distinguish from French chard.
• Chard is basically a beet bred for leaves instead of roots.
• Ancient Greeks and Romans used chard medicinally.
• Aristotle wrote about red chard in 4th century BC.
• Contains 13 different antioxidants!