How To Grow Swiss Chard In The Portland Area

Our Favorite Varieties

There are a range of swiss chard varieties to choose from that, frankly, don’t vary much in flavor. What does vary is the stem color and size of each plant. For the classic mix of rainbow hues and midsize plants, try growing Bright Lights. If you want almost shockingly huge plants with thick white ribs that produce all season long, go for Fordhook Giant. And for something a little different (and locally adapted!), try Joy’s Midnight, a variety with deep burgundy leaves and luminescent orange ribs on slightly smaller-statured plants. 

No matter which variety you pick, for best results we recommend growing chard from starts rather than seeds. It is common for nurseries to sell starts with multiple plants growing in a cluster per cell. Using scissors or pruners, be sure to thin down to a single plant per start when planting out so that the chard isn’t crowded and can reach its full colorful glory at maturity. 

‍

Common Chard Pests and How to Prevent Them

Have you ever grown chard only to have irregular yellowish-white blotches appear on the leaves, slowly killing sections of the plant? This common damage is caused by leafminer larvae - the pupal stage of the leafminer fly that burrows through the leaves after they hatch. At first the damage manifests as distinctive white tracks in the leaves that slowly spread into larger blotches of opaque dead tissue that eventually turn brown. Leafminers love to feed on chard and their close cousins, beets and spinach. This is particularly detrimental in chard because the leaves take longer to mature than quick-growing spinach so the damage has time to spread. It is less consequential to beet plantings because the damage does not spread to the beetroot itself. 

So, what to do about leafminers on your chard? Our best tip is to cover the plants immediately after planting with porous insect netting that prevents the flies from landing on the plants to lay their eggs. Check your local nursery to see if they sell smaller sections of netting like this ProtekNet Insect Barrier. We set up flexible wire hoops at each end of a row of chard, cut a piece of insect netting to size, and secure it to the soil with landscape staples. When you are making your little tunnel of netting, be sure to account for the mature size of the chard plants and set up your hoops accordingly! 

If you are not able to source insect netting, your other option is to monitor your plants closely for lines of tiny white eggs and manually remove them when you find them. Check the underside of each leaf of chard once a week for eggs throughout the growing season - leafminers can survive through the winter in our climate, so don’t let your guard down! 

‍

Small birds also love to feed on swiss chard, particularly in the winter when other food sources are scarce. You can recognize bird damage on the leaves by its distinctive jagged holes made by tiny beaks. If you don’t mind a few holes, bird damage does not actually make the plants dangerous to eat - and the simplest (and most zen) option might be to accept a certain level of damage. But if the birds are eating the chard down to the ribs, you can keep plants covered with the same insect netting we use to protect against leafminers or another kind of physical barrier. 

Whether you grow chard in the spring or fall, for culinary use or aesthetics, for yourself or the birds - we are confident these tips will lead you to success! Happy growing!