When to sow chard?
- Botanical name
- Beta vulgaris cicla
- Family
- Amaranthaceae
Chard is sown outdoors from April to July, 2.5 cm deep. It germinates in 10 to 12 days. It is harvested from May to March.
Chard is a biennial plant. The edible parts are the stems and leaves.
Chard is cut several times in the same season. For young leaves it is sown thickly, at 5 centimetres in the row, and first cut after 30 days. For whole plants 30 centimetres of spacing is left and the wait runs to 60 days. The leaves are eaten raw or cooked, and the thick stalks are better cooked.
Swings in soil moisture make the leaves tough, so chard is watered evenly.
Plants that overwinter outdoors run up a flower stem in spring, and the picking ends there.
Chard through the year
- indoor sowing
- transplanting
- outdoor sowing
- harvest
In short
The last frost is not on the same day everywhere, so the recorded weeks are a guide and not a date.
Growing conditions
Is chard toxic to cats and dogs?
No. Chard is not toxic to cats and dogs.
Pests and diseases
Listed here is every problem for which the sources name this plant as a host. The problems are not listed in order of how common they are.
- Signs
- Just under the skin of the leaf there are pale winding trails or irregular blotches, with the larvae inside them. The blotches are broad and the leaf is no longer for the plate.
- Prevention
- Cover the bed with fleece before the flies start laying their eggs in early spring. Remove the weeds of the same family, on which the pest keeps going between crops.
- What to do
- Squeeze the attacked leaves between your fingers so that the larvae in them die, or remove and destroy the leaves, which is the main measure. Do not spray, because that also destroys the parasitoids that keep the miners in check.
- Signs
- Holes appear in the middle of the leaf rather than along the edge, young plants are eaten down to the ground, and there are slimy trails in the morning. On low-growing fruit there are gnawed pits.
- Prevention
- Remove the hiding places beside the bed: boards, stones, dense weeds. Water in the morning and not in the evening, so that the night is dry. Spread a band of coarse sand or gravel around the bed. Cover young plants with fleece. Pick them off at night, which is still the most effective measure.
- What to do
- Baits with iron phosphate are held to carry less risk for pets and children. Put them out in bands beside the bed, not scattered over the whole surface.
Check the registration and the label before use.
Keep track of your plants with Tendask
Log the task and set a reminder for the next one. Every plant keeps its own history, so there is nothing to guess at.
Related plants
The plants below are in the same botanical family (Amaranthaceae).
Sources about the plant: Alabama Cooperative Extension System, BUND Region Hannover, Clemson Cooperative Extension, GBIF Backbone Taxonomy, KGZS, NC State Extension Plant Toolbox, Royal Horticultural Society, Semenarna Ljubljana, Utah State University Extension, Wikidata. Checked between 14 and 28 August 2026. The problem descriptions also draw on: University of Maryland Extension, University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension.