Spacing & sowing

Plant spacing

11.8 in

In-row spacing

9.8 in

Between rows

15.7 in

Square-foot density

4 per square

Sow depth

0.8 in

Calendar (from your frost dates)

Sow indoors

21 days before the last spring frost

Sow direct

7 days before the last spring frost

Plant out

at the last spring frost

First harvest

50 days after the last spring frost

Harvest ends

14 days after the first fall frost

Growing

Type

Vegetable · Grown as an annual

Botanical family

Chenopod (beet & chard family)

Sunlight

Full sun to part shade

Watering

Moderate

Soil

Rich, moisture-retentive

Feeding

Leafy greens & lawns

Frost tolerant

Yes

Cool-season crop

Yes — takes a second fall window

Season

Cool Season

Harvest type

Single Harvest

Start from

seed

Growth stages

• 0 d Sow seeds
• 10 d Germination
• 60 d Harvest

Harvest

When

First baby leaves come 30–40 days from sowing, full-sized leaves from 50–60 days. Harvest runs from early summer until hard frost; plants often overwinter under fleece in mild areas and give a bonus spring flush before bolting.

What to look for

Outer leaves 15–25 cm long for tender salads, up to 30–40 cm for cooking, glossy and fully colored with crisp, firm midribs. Avoid leaves that have gone dull, leathery, or ragged from age.

How to harvest

Cut or snap outer leaves individually at the base, 2–3 cm above the crown, with a sharp knife, working from the outside in. Never cut into or below the crown — the central growing point produces all subsequent leaves.

How often

Pick little and often, every 5–10 days, always leaving 4–5 central leaves so the plant keeps photosynthesizing. Regular harvesting keeps plants productive for months; a single plant can crop from early summer into winter.

Storing the crop

Chard wilts fast — refrigerate unwashed in a perforated bag with a damp paper towel for 3–5 days. Separate stems and leaves for cooking (stems take longer); blanch and freeze leaves for winter use, and stems can be pickled.

Pests & problems

• Leaf miners Larvae that tunnel pale wandering trails or blotches inside the leaf itself. Pick off and destroy mined leaves; damage is usually cosmetic.
• Slugs & snails Ragged holes and silvery trails on seedlings and soft young growth, worst in damp weather. Use beer traps, wool pellets, or torchlight hand-picking; keep beds clear of daytime hiding places.
• Birds Pigeons strip brassica leaves; other birds take fruit, buds, and seedlings. Netting fixed taut over hoops is the only reliable protection.

Garden allies

Beneficial predators that hunt this plant's pests — grow their favourite flowers nearby to recruit them. ★ companion plant

• Beneficial nematodes Steinernema & Heterorhabditis spp.
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Microscopic worms watered onto damp soil that hunt down soil-dwelling grubs and release a bacterium that kills them within days. Timing is the whole thing: warm, damp soil and a small target grub, which means late summer for most of what they are used against.

• Centipedes Chilopoda
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Flat, fast, one pair of legs to a segment — and a predator, unlike the slow round millipede it is constantly confused with. It hunts slugs, cutworms, springtails and woodlice by night under mulch and stones. Learn the difference and leave this one alone.

• Frogs & toads Anura
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  A resident toad works the beds every night for slugs, cutworms, and weevils. Recruit them with water — even a sunken basin pond — plus damp shade and an upturned-pot toad house; skip the slug pellets that poison their prey.

• Garden birds Passeriformes
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Both things are true: birds strip your currants and a brood of blue tits takes several thousand caterpillars out of one fruit tree in a fortnight. Net what you must and welcome them everywhere else — a nest box near the apples is worth more than a spray.

  Plant nearby EchinaceaElderberryEnglish hollyGoldenrodRudbeckiaSunflowerTeaselViburnum
• Ground beetle Carabidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Fast, glossy night hunters that patrol the soil surface for slugs, cutworms, and root-fly larvae. Give them daytime cover — thick perennial edges, stepping stones, a log — and skip the tillage that wrecks their burrows.

  Plant nearby LavenderMintThyme
• Hedgehog Erinaceus europaeus
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  A European animal, and worth saying so plainly: there are no hedgehogs in North America, and the ally that does the same night shift here is the toad, the opossum or the ground beetle. Where they do occur, cut a gap in the fence and skip the pellets.

• Parasitic wasps Braconidae & Trichogramma
  Hunts Leaf miners

  Tiny, stingless wasps that lay eggs in or on caterpillars, aphids, and moth eggs — the white cocoons riding a hornworm are their calling card, so leave that caterpillar be. Umbel flowers with shallow nectar keep the adults fuelled.

  Plant nearby CilantroDillFennelLovageParsleySweet alyssumYarrow
• Rove beetle Staphylinidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Slim, quick beetles with short wing cases that hunt in soil and litter, taking root-fly eggs and larvae, fungus-gnat larvae, and mites. Mulch and undisturbed ground keep them resident year-round.

  Plant nearby MintThyme
• Salamanders & newts Caudata
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  Damp-loving hunters of slugs, worms, woodlice and beetle larvae that spend the day under a log or a stone and work the beds at night. Companions to the toads: they want the same damp shade, the same log pile, and the same absence of slug pellets.

• Snakes & lizards Colubridae & Phrynosomatidae
  Hunts Slugs & snails

  A garter snake works the beds for slugs and voles and a fence lizard clears grasshoppers off a sunny wall. Almost every snake a gardener meets is harmless and useful; give them a log pile, a warm flat stone and a bit of cover and they stay.

Germination & growth

Germination temp

50–77°F

Min soil temp

43 °F

Photoperiod

long day

Companion planting

Good neighbors

• Cabbage
• Broccoli
• Onion Repels pests
• Green bean Fixes nitrogen