Chard, or chard. Why chard is useful, the use of the medicinal properties of chard Chard benefits and harms recipes
- biennial herbaceous plant, a subspecies of the common beet, belonging to the subfamily haze from the amaranth family. The distribution area is the middle and southern latitudes of Europe. Many cultivars exist, varying in stem color (white, yellow, pale green, and dark green) and leaf texture, which can be curly or even. This article will discuss the best for growing in open ground chard varieties.
Did you know?The cultivation of chard began in ancient Rome, while the roots of common beets began to be eaten much later, only in the 10th century.
Chard "Lucullus"
The chard variety "Lukullus" has the following description: a mid-season variety with thick pale green petioles up to 25 cm long and a rosette of large, highly raised, strongly bubbled leaves. Planting varieties "Lukullus" produced in April or late autumn. The mass of the productive part of the plant is from 500 g to 1200 g. From the shoots of the plant to ripeness, 3 months pass. 
Important! The leaves of the chard "Lukullus" contain a large amount of vitamin K, an excess of which in the human body can cause thrombophlebitis, blood viscosity, varicose veins.
Chard "Scarlet"
A two-year-old hybrid, resistant to flowering in the first year of vegetation, gives the first crop 35-40 days after planting, becomes fully ripe in 90 days. Chard "Scarlet" has a sprawling green-purple rosette of bubbly leaves up to 60 cm in size. The petioles have a raspberry hue, they reach 25 cm in length, they are juicy and fragrant. The variety is characterized by high yield: from 1 m2 in open ground, you can collect up to 6 kg of petioles and leaves. in greenhouses - up to 10 kg. 
Important!The scarlet chard contains oxalic acid, so it needs to be boiled a little before use. This is worth doing for people who have problems with the kidneys and gallbladder.
Chard "Red"
A mid-season variety with red leaves, frost-resistant, moisture-loving, can grow on any soil. Leaf beet chard "Red" contains vitamins C, B1, 33, carotene, it is rich in mineral salts, proteins. The use of "Red" chard juice allows you to expand blood vessels, cleanses the liver and kidneys, forms red blood cells, improves memory, and slows down the aging process. Salads are prepared from leaves and petioles, soups are cooked. Grows fast and needs regular pruning. 
Chard "Emerald"
Chard "Emerald" - an early ripe variety with a large rosette of leaves, a dark green blistered leaf plate and a petiole up to 30 cm. The time from germination to the start of collection is 70 days. Multiple cuts are allowed. Salads are made from beetroot of the Emerald variety, the leaves are stewed, pickled. 
Chard "Argentata"
Chard 'Argentata' is a cultivar that forms a vigorous shrub with many large leaves on wide and fleshy white petioles. The variety bears fruit for a very long time - from early June to late autumn. You can cut leaves and petioles several times during the growing season, the green mass recovers very quickly after each cut. The best soils for chard "Argentata" there will be loose and fertile loams. 
Chard "Spinach"
An early ripe domestic variety that forms a large rosette of tender juicy fleshy leaves. It has a high frost resistance, it is undesirable to grow in acidic soils, grows best on light and fertile su clay soils. The peculiarity of this variety of leaf beet is that the sowing of "Spinach" chard should be done at a soil temperature of up to 20 ° C. To protect yourself from spring frosts, you can plant in three stages - May, July and October, to speed up seed germination before sowing, they must be soaked in a weak solution of potassium permanganate. 
Did you know?The root of the chard "Spinach" contains a large amount of sugar, which was previously extracted by boiling. Much later, sugar began to be produced from common beets.
Mangold "Belovinka"
Chard "Belovinka" is a light-leaved domestic variety of leaf beet, intended for open and protected soil. Chard "Belovinka" is a mid-season variety, 83 days pass from germination to ripening. In open ground, you can get up to 5 kg per 1 m2, in protected ground - up to 9 kg. Leaves can be used as salad greens, and petioles for hot dishes. 
Important!The use of chard "Belovinka" is useful for diabetes, anemia, high blood pressure, improves work of cardio-vascular system and also speeds up metabolism.
Chard "Curly"
Chard beets of this variety are mid-season. It has strongly bubbling leaves and wide white petioles. It grows best on loose soils, loves a lot of sunlight, needs regular thinning by 30-40 cm. If the owner is going to remove the leaves from the Curly chard repeatedly, the plants in the rows should be left at a distance of 25 cm. 
I want to introduce you to one vegetable plant with an interesting and unusual name - chard. Planting and care in the open field is so simple that the hassle of growing will be minimal. I had an interesting story with beetroot chard. I sowed some beetroot seeds. I bought two varieties, made two furrows and sowed one variety in one, and the second in another. I threw out the seed bags, not even bothering to remember their names. Both varieties sprouted almost simultaneously.
It's time I thinned out my beets. I watered, loosened the aisles. Everything is as usual. And then I noticed that the tops on one row are more magnificent, the leaves are large with thick red petioles. The leaf grows "foolish", has grown almost above the knee, and the root does not even think of rounding. On the second, the leaves are much smaller, root crops began to tie. Shrugging my shoulders, I decided that the seeds were to blame, I had no luck with them. At first I wanted to pull out an unsuccessful beetroot - my granddaughter interfered, she liked the juicy beautiful leaves. I don't know how she guessed they were edible. But, when she came to the dacha, the first thing she did was run to this garden bed, plucked a whole bunch of leaves and ate them with pleasure.
Like this a funny story…
Chard in the garden with salads Only the next year, looking through the information on the Internet, I learned that there is a special variety of beets - Swiss chard. Became interesting. I have already bought special chard seeds. And having received an incomparable harvest, I realized that I would never part with it again. amazing plant- chard. How many delicious dishes you can cook with it! I will also talk about this, but a little later.
What is chard
Chard is a fairly powerful plant that can grow to a height of 60-70 cm. It depends on the variety. Chard is a close relative of the common beet, but it does not form a root crop, but is valued precisely for its ground part - a lush rosette of large blistered leaves rising above the ground on high thick petioles.
Chard has several names - chives chard, leaf chard, petiole chard. Grow it for the sake of obtaining tasty and unusually useful leaves.
Not only leaves are eaten, but also juicy fleshy stems, which, with proper care, reach a diameter of 7-8 mm. Petioles, like leaves, are incredibly rich in vitamins, minerals, trace elements and a variety of valuable compounds. If you introduce regular consumption of this into your diet vegetable plant, can the best way Boost your immunity and improve your health.
Of the varieties that I planted on my site, I especially liked the mid-season chard variety Bride, which allows the first cut of greenery 55-65 days after germination, to be of high yield. The plant reaches a height of 50-60 cm, has large wavy dark green leaves and very thick petioles. white color which differ in special juiciness and piquant taste.
Variety Bride No less tasty is the Beauty variety, which ripens in the same time frame. This variety of chard also allows for several cuts per season and has a high yield. In addition, it is also unusually decorative: a lush rosette of green leaves with red veins reaches a height of 60-70 cm and looks very elegant in the garden, thanks to bright raspberry thick petioles. And he can decorate any flower garden!
Chard - care and cultivation
Chard is unpretentious in care, and even a novice gardener can grow this culture. Its seeds begin to germinate already at a temperature of + 6-7 ° C, so I sow them on a bed filled with organic matter and mineral fertilizers in the spring at the earliest possible date.
Young shoots of chard are cold-resistant and tolerate spring frosts down to minus 2°С. For more early harvest this plant can be sown before winter, and to obtain delicate autumn greenery, it can be sown in August (in the Kuban). Only in hot summer conditions is it better to sow it to get a second crop in partial shade and not let the soil dry out.
Chard is grown mainly as annual plant, but it can be left before winter - in the second year of life it forms a tall peduncle with inflorescences, from which, after flowering, it will be possible to collect seeds and use them for future plantings.
How to plant chard
I sow the seeds in grooves spilled with water and sprinkle with a layer of earth 3-4 cm. When sown with dry seeds, seedlings appear in the garden in 10-12 days. When 2-3 true leaves appear on the seedlings, I thin out, leaving 35-40 cm between the shoots. Soon the plants become stronger and actively begin to grow.
The main condition for obtaining good harvest tender juicy petioles and leaves is the timely watering of the chard.
I also spend 2-3 feedings per season: the first one 7-10 days after germination, using nitrogen fertilizers, for the second and third feeding, which I spend at intervals of 17-20 days, I use complex fertilizers. But I advise you to halve the dose of fertilizers for each top dressing than indicated in the instructions in order to avoid the accumulation of nitrates in the "tops" of leaf beets.
I also regularly loosen the aisles of the chard and pull out the weeds. During the cultivation of this culture, I have not yet found signs of disease on it. But of the pests, the most important enemies for my chard are snails. Saved only by the Storm. Blue granules Thunderstorms (remedy for slugs and snails) periodically rash around the perimeter of the beds. The granules retain their properties even after 3-4 rains. Then, of course, it is necessary to update, sprinkle the bed again, protecting it from snails, but nothing can be done about it ...
Features of harvesting chard
I begin to harvest the crop as it ripens, cutting off the petioles with leaves located along the edges of the outlet and not affecting its middle. For one cut, I remove no more than a quarter of the entire green mass, so as not to greatly harm the plant. With this approach, the chard recovers very quickly and grows new greens in a short time.
chard harvest Chard, cooking recipes
Chefs in many countries of the world use chard to prepare main hot dishes and salads. Both leaves and young stems are used. The taste of fresh herbs with a slight sourness, and sometimes with bitterness, gives the dishes a special piquant and unique taste.
salad preparation Beetroot chard contains a large amount of vitamins and various minerals, useful substances and acids. And you can eat the leaves, both fresh in salads, and as a filling for all kinds of pies. With them, you can cook soups, cook borscht or make cabbage rolls from the leaves. Well, you can freeze them, of course. But I would not advise preserving the leaves - some kind of slur is obtained. Here petioles are a completely different matter.
Chard stalks What is the taste of chard associated with? Fresh leaves - with a slight, almost imperceptible sourness, and in the soup it looks more like spinach, but tastier than spinach. The taste is somewhat similar to spinach and beets at the same time - tender and sour-sweet. And how does it differ from beet tops? If the tops are young, then practically nothing. But you can’t pluck all of the beets, the root crop will have nothing to eat. And at the chard, you can endlessly cut off the leaves, leaving the middle. They will grow and grow.
Cabbage rolls with chard leaves
Stuffed cabbage from chard leaves By the way, stuffed cabbage from chard leaves is something extraordinary. I tried it once - now I only make these: delicate, wavy, silky leaves, juicy petioles. I will not write a detailed recipe, since the filling is no different from the usual one. If you want, make a meat filling, if you want a vegetable filling - whoever likes it. If culinary specialists advise to boil cabbage leaves for stuffed cabbage a little in salted water, cut off or beat off hard veins so that they become softer and do not break when minced meat is wrapped in them, then everything is very simple with leaf beets. The leaves, like silk, roll inward on their own! Cabbage rolls with chard leaves, believe me, it is very, very tasty!
Braised chard cabbage rolls Pies with beetroot chard
Open chard leaf pie Cut the leaves into wide strips, and the petioles into medium-sized cubes. Fry lightly until translucent onion, add chopped chard, stew a little, salt. You can add your favorite spices. Cool, add a few chopped boiled eggs, mix. This is our stuffing.
I usually make my pie with store bought puff pastry.
Spread minced meat on one sheet of puff pastry, cover with another sheet of dough on top. I pinch the edges, slightly wrapping them up, pierce the top sheet with a fork in several places and place in a preheated oven. After 20-25 minutes I take out the browned pie.
Closed chard pie With the filling for the chard pie, you can safely fantasize. It won't taste good! In the photo below, the puff pastry pie inside was seized with any hard cheese (you can use Dutch, you can use Parmesan), the filling does not crumble at all, you can safely serve it on a silver platter. The chard is tender, tender, and in combination with cheese and an egg, this is something unimaginable!
Pie with cheese, egg and chard Potato with chard
Boiled potatoes with chard I read this recipe on one of their forums on the Internet. I tried it, I liked it - I share with you. You can eat it as an independent dish, or you can serve it as a side dish for fried or salted fish.
I boil the potatoes almost until cooked, wash a large bunch of chard leaves (they boil down a lot during cooking), cut them with scissors into a pot with potatoes and cook until the potatoes are ready.
While everything is cooking, I quickly prepare the sauce: equal parts olive and sunflower oil odorless, pour into one bowl, add 2-3 large cloves of garlic finely chopped or passed through a garlic press, mix everything.
There are people who don't like the taste and smell of olive oil. It can be replaced with melted butter.
Drain the water from the potatoes and, while it is hot, pour the oil with garlic. Fragrant, tasty, healthy!
Chard side dish for meat and fish dishes
Wonderful, wonderful side dish of chard! Light, delicious and incredibly healthy.
Cut the chard into 1.5 cm strips, blanch in salted water for 2 minutes. Squeeze.
Heat any in a frying pan. vegetable oil whatever you like, throw in 5 minced garlic cloves, fry until golden brown. Put blanched and squeezed chard, salt, add a generous pinch of fragrant bazaar suneli hops. Simmer covered for 10 minutes. Ready!
Side dish for stewed chard meat Salad of chard leaves, green onion with sour cream
The composition of the salad is indicated in the title.
Fresh herb salad with sour cream Who knows, he understands!
Fried eggs with chard
Fried eggs with beetroot Favorite food for breakfast. It takes 5 minutes longer to prepare (leaves must be cut) than usual, but tastier and healthier.
I add chard to borscht.
You can add to okroshka (just cut it smaller).
And in salads, it will never be superfluous! Anyone who loves greens, I advise you to try.
In general, chard is a great thing. It is unpretentious, grows quite quickly, and useful, of course. Nice. It happens differently - with white stems, with yellow, with red.
Looks great on the garden! You can plant in flower beds!
I advise you to plant this amazing culture on your site in the new season. Chard will not only help diversify the usual diet and improve health, but will also become the main decoration, both in the garden and in the flower garden.
In our temperate latitudes, leaf beet is a rare guest - its root relative is somehow more familiar and dearer. Meanwhile, delicate, crispy chard greens are a tasty and healthy salad filler, and the juicy petiole is fried, boiled, stewed, marinated. The plant is so beautiful that it is not necessary for it to allocate a bed in the garden, taking up space from tomatoes or cucumbers. vegetable culture planted in a flower garden will give a decent harvest and decorate the garden.
Leaf beet variety Bride
Briefly about chard: what is it and where does it come from
Our ancestors called leaf beet or chard beetroot, Europeans - "Roman cabbage", Swiss - "grass stalk". The subspecies comes from the Mediterranean, where it has been cultivated as a medicinal and vegetable plant since the 2nd millennium BC. e. In Europe, spinach beets have not been supplanted by the root variety and are popular as a green crop.
The plant has a two-year development cycle. In the first year it gives a crop of greenery and juicy petioles, in the second it blooms and bears fruit. By appearance almost does not differ from beet tops. The same elongated glossy bubbly leaves, varying degrees of curlyness, long fleshy stems, depending on the variety - green, burgundy, bright yellow, silver.
The taste of greens is closest to spinach and baby corn, cooked baby stalks resemble cauliflower or asparagus. The unusual name chard sometimes leads to confusion - it is a variety of beets or daikon radish.
Note! The average yield from one rosette of petiole chard is 700–900 g. For own consumption it is enough to plant several plants - one for each family member.
Beneficial features
O useful properties Beetroot chard leaves are legendary, but they are not far from the truth. It has been scientifically proven that green tops are superior in content, potassium, iron, vitamin K, some antioxidants even to root crops. Here are some of the benefits of consuming vitamin greens.
- The low-calorie product contains a lot of coarse dietary fiber, which stimulates intestinal motility.
- Antioxidants retanol, betacyanin and others help the liver to remove toxins from the body, prevent aging, cell transformation.
- It has a positive effect on the processes of hematopoiesis, lowers cholesterol levels.
- Thanks to calcium and vitamin K, it strengthens bones.
- Normalizes metabolism, promotes fat burning.
Delicious and healthy salad
Classification, assortment
Depending on which food organ of the plant is used for food, two varieties of chard are cultivated - leaf or chisel and petiole (stem). The first form is closer to salads, greens are consumed raw, the second, like spinach, is more often used in stews, fried, boiled dishes.
Sheet
Leaf chard plants are smaller in size, they are a lush rosette of vertical or semi-vertical leaves 15–25 cm high. Leaves and petioles are dark green, with a purple tint, burgundy veins. Foliage after pruning grows several times a season, like sorrel. Chives chard is less common than stalked chard, we grow only a few varieties of this type of leaf beet.
- Bulls Blood is a lettuce variety with glossy purple leaves and purple petioles. The greens are very juicy and tender, ready for consumption a month after germination.
- Volcano - a variety with dark green tops and burgundy roots, a rosette 25 cm high. Up to 700 g of green products can be obtained from one plant.
- Variety Lyons - low bushes with a lush rosette of light green leaves. The greens are juicy and fleshy, slightly larger in size than spinach.
Leaf variety
petiolate
The stalked form of beet chard is represented by a large assortment and color palette. The plant grows in height from 45 to 70 cm, forming a lush rosette. Characteristic- a long fleshy petiole, turning into a wide vein. Here are some well-known varieties as an example.
- Variety Pomegranate of medium ripening (80 days), grows to a height of up to 70 cm. The tops are light green, petioles and veins are purple. From one bush, you can prepare up to a kilogram of petioles and leaves.
- Emerald - high yielding early variety with a compact rosette no more than 45 cm high. The leaves and stem are green.
- Svekman is a cold-resistant variety of medium ripening. Beautiful, medium-sized dark green leaves with a white vein and stem.
- The bride is an early variety, drought-resistant, very juicy. The bush grows up to 60 cm in height. The dark green leaf plate is intersected by a white vein with a golden sheen, turning into a petiole of the same shade.
petiolate handsome
Note! Varieties with red, yellow and silver petioles are especially decorative. Planted along the edge of a flower bed, border, they will give greenery all summer long and delight the eye.
Features of agricultural technology
The cultivation of beet chard in many respects and methods of agricultural technology is no different from its root relative. The culture is cold-resistant, in terms of sowing time it is in the group of early spring vegetables - carrots, spinach, radishes, parsley. The seeds are similar in shape and germination characteristics to beetroot seeds and they are also prepared for planting - they are soaked, disinfected, stimulated, and germinated if desired.
Landing
For planting leaf beets, choose a sunny bed with loose, permeable soil. Special requirement for fertility. On poor green soil, the vegetable turns out to be less juicy and tender, the petioles become sinewy, rough. Before planting, it is best to fertilize the ground with humus at a standard dosage of 4–5 kg / m².
The vegetable is grown by direct sowing of seeds into the soil in the row method to a depth of 2–3 cm, with row spacing of 40–45 cm. At a temperature of 10–12⁰ heat, seedlings will appear in about 2 weeks. To speed up germination, the bed can be covered with a film or lutrasil.
Multi-colored palette of varieties
Care
2–3 sprouts come out of one beet seedling, so 1–2 thinnings - required element agricultural technology of culture. Plants of leaf forms are left after 20-25 cm, petiolate - 30-40 cm.
Moisture requirements for chard are moderate. Watering is needed regularly, but without fanaticism, it is even better to mulch the surface of the soil to preserve moisture.
In order for the leaves to grow quickly and retain a juicy texture, it is recommended to combine watering with top dressing. The first top dressing is carried out after the second thinning with the introduction of full fertilizer or garden mixture. After the next harvest, the chard is watered and a microdose (2-4 g / m²) of complex fertilizers is applied. Mineral fertilizers can be replaced with herbal infusions or mullein solution (1:10).
The outer leaves and petioles of the chard are plucked as needed. In order for the plant to continue to grow normally, 25% of the green mass can be collected at one time.
Important! Swiss chard is loved by the beet flea. The insect sucks the juices from the sprout at the moment of pecking, which leads to the inevitable death of the plant. For the purpose of prevention, the site is dusted with tobacco dust a day or two before emergence.
Chard - all year round
Useful green culture is easy to grow year-round. You can speed up the production of early spring products by a whole month if you sow chard before winter, just like beets, or grow seedlings. Seeds for seedlings are sown a month earlier than the usual sowing dates (mid-March), at the age of 4–4.5 weeks, the seedlings that have risen are planted in open ground.
Leaf beets sown in July-August will ensure the collection of juicy greens throughout the autumn. Before the onset of frost, the chard is carefully dug up with roots, the outer old leaves are removed and added dropwise in the cellar, greenhouse. Despite the lack of lighting, surprisingly tender and tasty leaves are obtained.
The second option is to plant the excavated plant in flower pot. After it takes root, feed it with complex fertilizers. Before frost, chard can be on the street, in winter - on the windowsill. About a month after the transplant, fresh greens will appear, the harvesting technology is the same - the outer row, without touching the middle.
Chard (leaf beet) is more of a vegetable than greens - a large plant up to 60-70 cm high. Chard is very beautiful - it decorates a garden and even a flower garden, red-leaved varieties with carved leaves are especially beautiful.
Chard grows best, developing a beautiful rosette, in fertile and loose, non-acidic soils with sufficient moisture. The brightly colored petioles and elegant chard leaves invariably attract attention and are good decoration garden. For compact leaf varieties chard, the recommended distance between plants is about 25 cm, for petiolate varieties with large leaves - twice as much.
WITH decorative purpose gardeners grow a variety of varieties of chard, among which varieties stand out:
- green petiolate (with green petioles and leaves, rosette semi-erect or semi-flattened);
- silver-petiolate (with silver-white petioles, wavy or corrugated leaves are dark green or yellow-green, straight or semi-erect rosette);
- red-petiolate (with red-crimson or red-violet petioles, dark green leaves with red veins, straight or semi-erect rosette);
- yellow-petiolate (with yellow or orange petioles, dark green leaves with golden veins, semi-erect rosette).
Useful properties of chard
Young leaves and petioles are eaten, which contain carbohydrates, nitrogenous substances, organic acids, carotene (up to 6 mg%), vitamins C (up to 60 mg%), B, B2, O, PP, potassium salts, calcium, phosphorus , iron, lithium, etc.
Leaf beet - chard - is rich in vitamins, very pleasant in taste, and is among the leaders in terms of its yield: one plant is able to produce more than 1 kg of selected leaves and petioles.
Chard is highly valued in the early spring, when green vitamin products are still scarce. It is used to prepare salads, vinaigrettes, soups, beetroots, cold appetizers and second courses - they are stewed in oil and lard, like spinach. Petioles are boiled in salted water and fried with breadcrumbs in oil. The leaves are fermented separately or together with cabbage. Petioles can be pickled like cucumbers (by cutting and inserting them vertically into jars to size).
Chard also has medicinal properties. It is very useful to use it for diabetes, anemia, kidney stones, high blood pressure. Eating it improves the functioning of the liver, the cardiovascular system, promotes the growth of children, stimulates the activity of the lymphatic system and increases the body's resistance to colds. Chard is also recommended for use against radiation sickness. Chard root gruel is a good remedy against baldness.
Chard is used in cooking different countries world to prepare a variety of dishes. It's delicious and medicinal plant very useful in obesity, diabetes, kidney stone disease, anemia. In cooking, young leaves and cuttings are used until they are juicy and coarsened.
Chard is successfully used to decorate dishes. To this end, its tender leaves can replace traditionally used lettuce leaves. Put the chard leaves on the dish, and you can put any cold appetizer on top of them.
Chard is widely used in the preparation of various vitamin dishes in dietary nutrition. It is good for cooking cabbage soup, borscht and, of course, a variety of salads. Stewed chard is an original appetizer for pasta or a side dish for meat.
Dangerous properties of chard
Since chard contains vitamin K in large quantities than the body needs, it is important to observe the measure in its consumption. After all, even useful vitamins can be harmful if you do not follow the correct dosage.
So, an excess of vitamin K can lead to blood viscosity, an increase in platelets. Therefore, it is highly undesirable to consume foods rich in vitamin K, patients with thrombophlebitis, varicose veins, some types of migraines, patients with high cholesterol.
Since chard contains oxalic acid, then, like spinach, it is recommended to boil it for a short time before use, and drain the water in order to get rid of it.
Do you know what chard is? In spite of wide use culture, not all gardeners in our country are familiar with it. In fact, this is the same beet, but only its leaves are eaten.
If you want to grow it in the garden, in our article you will find all the necessary information about sowing and caring for chard, and photos and videos will help you learn about the culture and learn the skills to care for it.
Beetroot chard: planting, care and reproduction
Cultivation of leaf beet is not yet very common in our country. Although this vegetable is bypassed completely undeservedly. The leaves contain many vitamins and nutrients, much more than in ordinary table beets.
Peculiarities
Growing and caring for chard is a simple matter, because, in fact, this vegetable is just a type of beetroot. Accordingly, sowing further care is also carried out. But since the culture is still considered leafy, some differences in planting and care in the open field, in comparison with beets, still exist (Figure 1).
Picture 1. External Features chard First of all, it is distinguished by high cold resistance: its seeds successfully germinate even at a temperature of 6-7 degrees. Therefore, sowing can be carried out both in early April and in mid-summer to get fresh greens in the fall.
Note: Thanks to resistance to low temperatures can be carried out and winter sowing, to in early spring harvest fresh herbs.
Planting can be carried out both directly by sowing seeds in open ground, and through seedlings. The latter method will allow you to get an earlier harvest.
Care rules
Chard does not require special care. But if you want to get large leaves, it is advisable to water it regularly (in the absence of natural precipitation) and sometimes make weak solutions mineral fertilizers. For these purposes, it is advisable not to use nitrogenous fertilizers, as they lead to the accumulation of nitrates in the leaves.
In the process of cultivation, you can gradually cut off the outer leaves. So the plant will be more lush. Since it is a biennial plant, the strongest bushes can be left for the winter, covered with a layer of mulch. In the spring, the bush will release new shoots and the greens can be harvested again.
Conditions
Any soil is suitable for growing, but on fertile soils the bush grows more magnificently. That is why one of the key conditions is sowing after crops, under which organic fertilizers were applied.
Planting is carried out when the soil warms up to a depth of 3-4 cm, but if sowing is carried out earlier, it is better to cover the bed with a film to activate germination. As a rule, seedlings need to be thinned out, and large bushes should be hilled up so that the stems are more stable.
Uses of beetroot chard
The leaves of the culture contain many vitamins and nutrients. That is why it is recommended to include it in the diet along with spinach and other green crops.
Leaf beet is very useful for people with diabetes, anemia and high blood pressure. In addition, it strengthens the immune system and improves liver function.
The leaves are most commonly eaten and used in salads. But petioles are also suitable for eating. They can be stewed, pickled and even fermented for the winter. More useful information You will learn about the beneficial properties of the plant from the video.
Varieties of chard
There are several varieties of chard that differ in the color of the petiole (for example, scarlet or green). Growing these crops is practically no different, but there are still some features.
Red chard: planting and care
Red leaf beets are sown in mid-April, when the temperature is relatively stable. It is advisable to cover the bed with a film so that the seeds germinate faster (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Red chard This variety is resistant to flowering, and the first harvest can begin as early as a month and a half after planting. Since it forms a fairly large rosette with large leaves, crops are necessarily thinned out, and moderately watered in dry weather.
Chard Emerald - growing from seed
Growing the Emerald variety from seeds will take a fairly long period of time, since this variety ripens relatively late. Approximately 2 months pass from the moment the first shoots appear to the harvest.
The culture is distinguished by a compact rosette with medium-sized leaves. Petioles are very juicy and large enough, so they are great for stewing and marinating (Figure 3).
Landing and care (features, rules, etc.)
A bed for a plant is prepared in the fall. To do this, the earth must be dug very deeply, since the plant has a long and branched root.
Note: The optimum loosening depth is at least 30 centimeters, but if possible, the soil can be worked even deeper.
Figure 3. Variety of chard Emerald It is desirable to add fertilizers to the soil: humus, nitrogen and potassium. This condition is not necessary, but if the soil is fertile, the leaves will become juicy and tasty. On heavy clay soils without top dressing, the leaves become too rough.
How to grow from seed
Before planting, the seeds are soaked in water for two days or wrapped in damp gauze. But on fertile soils, seeds may not be soaked, they germinate even without it (Figure 4).
It is best to sow it at the same time as potatoes, in sufficiently warm soil. If the ground is cold, the plants will not produce leaves, but arrows. With early sowing, the bed must be covered with a film to maintain temperature and humidity.
Figure 4. Soil preparation and sowing of chard The depth of sowing seeds is no more than 3 centimeters. Shoots will appear in two weeks. After the formation of several leaves, loosening and thinning are carried out, removing the weakest plants.
Also, the culture can be grown through seedlings, following the example of beets. But in this case, the sprouts are transplanted into the ground later, when the ground temperature reaches at least 10 degrees.
In the future, the bed is periodically loosened and seedlings are thinned out. Watering is practically not required, since the culture is highly resistant to drought. But, if the soil becomes too dry, the soil will have to be additionally moistened.
From the video you will learn how to properly prepare seeds for growing seedlings or leaf beets in open ground.
Growing in a greenhouse
Chard is also suitable for growing in a greenhouse. Due to the fact that the culture has minimal care requirements, you can get a crop of fresh greens even in winter (Figure 5).
Note: You can make a bed in a greenhouse not only with the help of seeds, but also with roots. They are buried in the ground at a short distance from each other and sprinkled with a small layer of soil, leaving the growth point open.
When planted with roots, the culture takes root faster, and the stable temperature and humidity of the greenhouse accelerate the growth and maturation of leaves. However, the room should not be allowed to be too hot. If the temperature rises above 20 degrees, the plants will start throwing arrows.
Figure 5. Growing in a greenhouse from seeds and seedlings In closed ground, it is advisable to feed the plant with liquid fertilizers and water moderately (about once a week). Under these conditions, it can be grown in a greenhouse not only in summer, but also in winter.
Reproduction and harvesting
Proper cultivation and care of chard will allow you to get fresh greens from early spring until autumn. Moreover, culture can be propagated not only by seeds or seedlings, but even by roots. They can be planted in a pot and put it on the windowsill. So you can get a harvest even in winter.
Figure 6. Harvest of Swiss chard Harvesting is carried out throughout the growing season (Figure 6). Leaves are cut from outside so that the socket further forms a green mass. How more leaves you cut, the more magnificent the bush will become. Roots can be left in the ground for the winter, covering them with a layer of mulch. So you can get the first crop of greenery in early spring.
Diseases and pests
Among pests, beet aphids and earth fleas are the most dangerous. To combat them, spraying with insecticides or onion infusion is used. As a preventive measure, the sown bed is sprinkled with ash.
