Glatter Silber 3 Chard
A classic chard of beautiful presence in the bed: dark green and imposing leaves, crossed by veins and wide stems of an almost silvery white.
About the variety. Glatter Silber 3 is a robust variety that produces abundant harvests practically year-round. Very tasty and versatile. Also suitable for containers. Note: the seed is sensitive to waterlogging.
Itinerário técnico
Um guia de cultivo passo a passo, da sementeira à colheita.
Sow direct two or three centimetres deep, or in trays for transplanting at four weeks. It germinates in one to two weeks from 10 °C: sow from March to June and again in September, and avoid midsummer sowings, which start badly. Each seed is really a cluster containing several seeds, so three or four plants always come up together and thinning is compulsory: leave one every twenty five to thirty centimetres. Soaking the seed for a few hours speeds germination.
It adapts to almost any soil as long as it is deep, fertile and free draining, at a pH between 6.0 and 7.0. It tolerates slightly saline soils better than almost any other vegetable, which makes it useful in coastal gardens.
It is remarkably adaptable, between 15 °C and 25 °C, and takes both heat and light frost, which makes it one of the most reliable leaf crops for year round growing. A well established plant can produce for eight to ten months in a row. It adapts to most of western Europe. On the Portuguese coast and in southern Spain use spring and autumn and avoid the peak of summer. Inland in Iberia water more through the dry months. In France and Germany the natural season is spring and summer, sowing once the soil has warmed steadily. In Italy the same rule applies as in the rest of the Mediterranean: spring and autumn in the centre and south, spring and summer in the north.
Because the leaf is the crop, nitrogen matters, but in moderate, slow release form. Mature compost before sowing and one or two waterings with liquid organic feed during growth give tender leaves without building up nitrates. Heavy late feeding makes the leaf brittle, attracts aphids and shortens shelf life after harvest.
Water regularly to keep the leaf tender and the stalk fleshy. It stands drought better than spinach, but water shortage toughens the midrib. Water at the base.
Hoe often and always shallowly, because the roots are short, near the surface and break easily. The best method is to prepare the bed two or three weeks in advance, let the first flush of weeds germinate, remove it and only then sow: that gives you a decisive head start. A thin layer of sieved compost between the rows greatly reduces later work.
Slugs and snails are enemy number one for this crop and can clear a whole sowing in one damp night. Use barriers of ash, eggshell or sawdust around the bed, collect them at night with a torch and fall back on ferric phosphate if needed. Aphids settle in the heart of the plant and are hard to wash out later: apply potassium soap at the first sign and encourage ladybirds and hoverflies with flower strips. Leaf miner draws pale tunnels in the leaf, which are simply removed by hand. Thrips and flea beetle attack mainly in dry warm weather.
Cercospora leaf spot makes round spots with a pale centre and dark border, above all in warm humid weather: remove affected leaves and improve airflow. Downy and powdery mildew appear in still humid conditions. Do not water over the leaves at the end of the day, because leaf that stays wet overnight is what sets off cercospora. Use a three year rotation away from beetroot and spinach, which are in the same family.
Pick the outer leaves one at a time, twisting them off or cutting close to the base, and always leave the central bud with five or six leaves. Done this way the plant produces for months. Do not cut the whole plant at once, and do not let old leaves age on the plant, because that halts new leaf production. The reference colour is dark green with white veins, and that is what tells you it is ready.
