Farmers can plant Swiss chard in considered one of two techniques: direct seeding or seedling transplants. Invoice Kerr explains the professionals and cons of each and every way, and advises how one can get the vegetation off to a excellent get started.
Photograph: Invoice Kerr
Direct seeding Swiss chard gives a farmer quite a few vital benefits: the seed itself is reasonably affordable, you save on the price of seedlings, and you’ll use the surplus vegetation got after thinning to transpant in different places.
If you wish to do any transplanting, permit the vegetation to get large enough (roughly 12cm tall) to deal with the method. Trim the leaves with a couple of scissors prior to planting to acquire a stability between the basis machine and the foliage.
Each and every ‘seed’ is assessed as a fruit that accommodates a couple of seeds, so thinning is typically required.
There are 3 primary disadvantages of direct seeding: extra labour is needed for thinning and replanting, the crop occupies the land for longer prior to harvesting, and weed regulate is more challenging.
Beet cyst eelworm
Many vegetable farmers have beet cyst eelworm (Heterodera schachtii) of their lands. If so with you, don’t even believe direct seeding, because it lets in the eelworm to move via extra breeding cycles. Use seedlings handiest.
Farmers who’ve this eelworm typically perform crop rotation and use suitable chemical compounds to scale back the pest, however as soon as within the soil it’ll at all times be provide to some extent.
For probably the most section, the use of seedlings is the more secure possibility on all counts and lets you steer clear of many dangers. Additionally, seedlings assist you harvest a crop a complete month previous than with direct seeding.
Whether or not the use of direct seeding or seedlings, it’s best to soak the seed in a single day, then drain and stay it damp for a few days prior to drying it sufficient to plant.
Planting
House the vegetation 15cm to 20cm aside within the row, and with an inter-row distance of about 40cm. To present the seedlings a excellent get started, irrigate them with a closed handful of LAN in 8ℓ to 10ℓ of water prior to transplanting. This may increasingly water about 2 000 seedlings. Make certain that the seedlings are neatly irrigated prior to planting.
Fertilisation
After irrigating, observe a best dressing when the leaves begin to change into paler. This may increasingly virtually at all times get started in patches, so be careful for it. Being very leafy, Swiss chard is a nitrogen-loving crop.
The primary best dressing depends upon the natural content material of the soil, the pre-planting fertiliser, and any leaching that can happen because of rain or extra irrigation.
Swiss chard has the benefit of being fairly sodium-tolerant. It’s additionally now not fussy about soil kind and may even develop neatly in clay soils.
Eelworm is a risk in sandy soils. Swiss chard is very at risk of cyst eelworm in addition to root knot eelworm (Meloidogyne spp).
Swiss chard may also be productive for quite lengthy, so you want to begin off with a low eelworm rely within the soil. Fumigation and/or post-planting chemical compounds can be utilized.
Invoice Kerr is a vegetable specialist and breeder.