Tower Garden Grow Guide: How to Grow Chard
GROWING INFORMATION
Chard
DIFFICULTY
1 out of 5 leaves
TIME TO HARVEST
4 weeks
INDOOR VS OUTDOOR
Both
BEST TOWER POSITION
Top
Why We Love Chard
Are you familiar with chard? Related to beets, this nutrient-dense, delicious, versatile vegetable doesn’t get nearly the amount of attention as popular greens such as spinach and kale. But it should! An excellent source of vitamins A, B, C, K, heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, calcium, copper, iron, manganese, phosphorus and potassium — it’s among the healthiest foods you can eat.
Download the Chard Grow Guide PDF.
Varieties
- Rainbow - a mix of white-stemmed Swiss chard, red chard, and goldenre chard. When these three power players come together, they pack in a lot of flavour.
- Fordhook - Medium-green, crinkly leaves and a white stalk. Highly productive and resists bolting, resulting in a longer growing season
- Bionda di Lyon - Pale-green, smooth leaves and a white stalk. Less fibre than other types of chard, so the plant is tender with a mild flavour.
- Rhubarb Chard - Deep-green, crinkly leaves with bright crimson stalks that contain phyto-nutrients called betalains. This variety is frost-sensitive, unlike other types of chard.
- Magenta Sunset - Red stalk and medium-green, smooth leaves with a mild flavour.
- Bright Lights - Its green and bronze leaves are slightly crinkled, and the stems range from orange and yellow to purple and pink. Milder and more frost-sensitive than regular chard.
Planting Your Seedlings
What You’ll Need
- Tower Garden Growing System
- Seedling Starter Kit (If starting with seeds)
- Swiss Chard seeds/seedlings (included in Seedling Starter Kit)
- Net Pots
- LED Indoor Grow Lights (for indoor growing)
- Access to power source
More information on starting your seeds is here.
- Germinate your seeds. This step will take roughly 1-2 weeks. When your seeds have sprouted to about 6cm tall, they should be ready for transplant (about 2–3 weeks after sprouting)
- Place one seedling cube into each net pot on your Tower Garden Growing System. Because Swiss chard grows tall, we recommend planting it towards the top of your Tower Garden.
- Gently press the seedling cube until it touches the base of the net pot.
Growing Conditions
Temperature: 10 - 21° C
Light exposure and watering cycle can be controlled by our digital timer, but for manual reference:
Light
For outdoor – minimum 6-8 hours of full sunlight daily
For indoor – set grow light timer for 14-16 hours on, 8-10 hours off
Watering Cycle
Please set the Tower timer to “O” for outdoor growing or “I” for indoor growing.
Maintenance & Pest Prevention
- Check water and pH levels at least weekly.
- Keep roots away from pump.
- If not in full sun when outdoors, rotate garden regularly for even growing.
- Clean pump monthly.
- Check regularly for pests.
- Remove dead plant debris.
- Destroy diseased plant material.
More information on Tower Garden maintenance is here, as well as extra help for pests and troubleshooting.
Harvesting
- Cut leaves near the base, being careful not to cut the stems of the inner leaves.
- Harvest the mature leaves first, leaving smaller leaves for continued production.
- Pick no more than 3–5 mature leaves from a plant at a time.
- Harvest often, as this encourages new growth.
- Remove old leaves that have lost their glossy sheen.
- Rinse and bag all unused leaves, which will last 4 days in the refrigerator.
More information on harvesting is here.
Ways to Enjoy
- Salads – rather than lettuce, throw Swiss chard into your salad for a heart-healthy lunch. Here are Tower Gardener recipes for a Mixed Green Salad, a Power Salad, and a Quinoa Herb Salad.
- Sides – sauté your Swiss chard on the stovetop. Once wilted, season with salt, pepper, lemon juice, and parmesan cheese for added flavour.
- Scrambled Eggs – Up the nutritional ante of your morning eggs with chard! Try this Veggie Scrambled Eggs recipe from a fellow Tower Gardener.
Looking for more recipes and kitchen inspiration? Check out Let’s Cook.