Swiss Chards are cold seasoned biennial ( 2 years to complete life cycle) vegetables and come in beautiful vibrant colors, livening up any salads.
We don’t see them on our supermarkets’ shelves and thus decided to grow from seeds.
As they belonged to the beets family, their seeds are similar-looking as well.
GERMINATION NOTES
Sow on very wet medium
Preferred darkness
Maintain wet medium until roots showed
Soaked seeds for 20 minutes if sowed directly in the soil, slightly buried
RAINBOW SWISS CHARDS
The distinctive colors of rainbow Swiss Chard were visible before seed leaves showed.
As the seedlings grew, these colors become more vivid.
YELLOW HUE
Seeds husk was still attached as the roots grew longer when this seedling was about 6 days old.
Seed leaves showed on the 7th day as the roots developed mass.
The yellow hue is brighter on the stem.
RED HUE
When two roots emerged from one seed pod, they were actually 2 seedlings.
What was interesting was they can be in different colors.
FORDHOOK Giant
Swiss Chard has the texture of Romaine and each leaf is very tasteful and juicy.
In salad bowls, they add color and vibrancy.
We will be starting new batches of Swiss Chard for salads after tasting how great they were freshly harvested from our indoor gardens.
Notes on Swiss Chard
3 – 4 days to germinate
Harvest stage around 2 months
Seeds like very wet medium
Small leaves can be used in salads
Bigger leaves for light stir fry
Stems typically steamed like asparagus
Full sun or partial shade, not fussy
If soil, the pot needs to be deeper, mulch on the topsoil to prevent heat from penetrating (similar to strawberry outdoor)
Mature leaves are crinkled, thick, juicy ( I love them raw for the texture)
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