Gadenin日本語Get the appOne seed is not one plant
What the packet calls a seed is a dried fruit containing two to four true seeds fused together. Sow one and you get a tuft of two, three, sometimes four seedlings from a single point. This surprises people who have grown lettuce or spinach, and it is the single most useful thing to know about sowing chard.
The practical consequences are immediate. You sow far fewer seeds than you would expect for the same number of plants, and you must thin, because seedlings sharing one station are sitting on top of each other with their roots interlocked. A bed left unthinned produces thin, floppy stems all season and never gives the thick midribs that are the point of the crop.
Pelleted chard is sold as single seed, so check the packet. If the seed is knobbly and irregular it is a cluster; if it is a smooth round bead it has been split and coated, and one bead really is one plant.
Buy roughly a quarter of the seed you would buy for a comparable crop of lettuce. A small packet plants a long row.
Temperature and depth
Chard germinates over a wide band, from about 50F (10C) up to the mid 80s, which is why it can be sown almost any time the ground is workable. The reliable range is 65 to 75F (18 to 24C), where it comes up in five to seven days. Below 50F it will sit for two weeks or more and rot before it emerges.
Sow deeper than you think. The cluster is large and needs to take up a lot of water before anything happens, so half to three quarters of an inch (1.5 to 2 cm) is right. Shallow sowing is the usual cause of a patchy row: the cluster dries partway through absorbing water and the seedlings inside die without ever showing.
| Soil temperature | Days to emerge | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
| Around 50F (10C) | Fourteen or more | Slow and gappy, some clusters rot |
| 60F (15C) | Eight to ten | Even, and safe for an early sowing |
| 65 to 75F (18 to 24C) | Five to seven | The most reliable window |
| Above 85F (29C) | Four to six, then patchy | Fast but the seedlings scorch on emergence |
Soaking the clusters in room temperature water for four to six hours before sowing brings emergence forward by two or three days. Do not soak overnight; the clusters ferment.
Spacing at sowing
Decide at sowing whether you want full sized plants for cut-and-come-again picking over months, or a dense stand of baby leaf. The spacing is completely different, and you cannot convert one into the other later without pulling most of the bed out.
| Growing for | Station spacing | Row spacing | Final plant spacing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full size plants | 6 in (15 cm) | 15 to 18 in (38 to 45 cm) | 10 to 12 in (25 to 30 cm) |
| Medium leaf for cooking | 4 in (10 cm) | 12 in (30 cm) | 8 in (20 cm) |
| Baby leaf salad | 1 in (2.5 cm), sown along a drill | 6 in (15 cm) | Thin only to 2 in (5 cm) |
The two thinnings
Thin twice. The first thinning separates the cluster, the second sets the final spacing. Doing it in one go at the wrong moment costs you plants, because pulling a large seedling out of a clump drags its neighbors with it.
- First thinning at the first true leaf When the first true leaf shows beyond the seed leaves, reduce each cluster to the two strongest seedlings. At this size the roots have barely tangled and you can lift the surplus cleanly with your fingertips.
- Cut, do not pull, at the second thinning At three or four true leaves, cut the weaker of the two off at soil level with scissors rather than pulling it. The roots are interlocked by now and pulling loosens the plant you are keeping.
- Firm and water after each thinning Press the soil back around every plant you keep and water it in. A seedling left with an air pocket at the root wilts on the first warm afternoon and never fully recovers.
- Eat the thinnings Thinnings with two or more true leaves are good salad. There is no reason to compost them, and knowing that makes people thin properly instead of leaving crowded stations alone.
Thin on a day when the soil is evenly moist. In dry soil the whole clump lifts as one; in mud the keeper is left standing loose.
Sowing under cover and transplanting
Chard transplants far more willingly than most root-heavy leafy crops, so raising it in modules is a real option where the ground is cold, wet or full of slugs in early spring. Sow one cluster per cell in a three quarter inch (2 cm) deep hole, thin to one seedling, and plant out at four true leaves.
Plant slightly deeper than the module surface, up to the base of the lowest leaf stalk. Chard sets its crown at the soil line and a plant sitting proud of the bed rocks in wind, which tears the fine roots and stalls it for a fortnight.
Write down the sowing date, the station spacing you used, and how many days elapsed before the first true leaf appeared. Chard is grown from the same bed for months, and next season those three figures tell you far more about how to plan the row than any packet does.