Silver beet, also known as Swiss chard, is a great staple vegetable to grow – it’s easy, fast growing, and more tolerant of both the cold and heat than spinach. A relative of beetroot, silver beet generally has thick crinkled leaves with prominent leaf ribs and stems. It tends to be treated it as a leafy green vegetable, but the stems are also useful, and can be cooked like celery.
It has been put in the shadows for a few years with Kale and Spinach taking the medals, but now it’s back. My sales over the past decade have seen Kale has slip back into third place, spinach move into second and Silverbeet is back on the top of the podium.
Varieties of Silverbeet
• Fordhook Giant: A very popular home garden variety with large tender green curled leaves with white ribs and stalks. It has an excellent flavour and is suitable for all types of cooking from stir fry to lasagne.
• Magenta: With stems and veins of hot pink to magenta and dark jade coloured foliage this silverbeet is primarily grown for young salad greens. The leaves are smooth, and the stalks are narrow, even at full size.
• Rainbow Chard: An attractive variety producing colourful stems of bright purple through to pink and orange. It makes a great feature in the garden. It can be harvested young for salads or left to mature for cooking.
• Ruby Red: Has dark green leaves with red veins and stems. It has an excellent slightly unique flavour’. It is very attractive both in the garden and meals. It is good variety for growing baby leaves.
Planting Window
In frost-free areas silver beet can be planted throughout the year. It thrives in a variety of climates although a temperature range between 4 and 24 degrees Celsius is best.
Seeds or Seedlings?
You can either plant seeds directly or grow them up in seedling trays and transplant them into your garden or pots. Silver beet are cluster seeds which means that between 2 and 5 seeds are usually connected and you will need to select the strongest plant as they sprout. Soaking seeds overnight can aid germination, but it is not essential.
Plant seeds half a centimetre under the soil and water gently to ensure the seeds don’t all rise to the surface. Keep the soil moist until your seeds sprout. The optimal temperature for silver beet germination is between 10 and 29 degrees Celsius but they will sprout between 4 and 35.
Soil, Sun, and Water
Provide a sunny position with well-drained soil that is slightly acid to neutral (6 to 6.8 is ideal). Roots can go down 90 to 120 centimetres so ensure the soil is well worked. Enrich with compost and apply seaweed solution fortnightly. An application of sulphate of potash fertiliser will improve both stem firmness and storage life.
Container Growing
Silverbeet grows well in a container. Sometimes I grow 3 or 4 in a large pot or I grow a mixed container with one silver beet and some herbs.
Companion Planting
Onions and beetroot will make great companions.
Maintenance
It’s important to pull out nearby weeds as they will compete for light, nutrients, and water. Insect pests are rarely a problem, but the caterpillars can cause some damage. An organic solution such as Dipel is invaluable along with physical checking of your plants.
Harvesting
You’ll be able to start harvesting your silver beet in 8 to 10 weeks when the leaves are around 30 centimetres long. Pick the outer leaves by cutting them with a knife or bending them downwards. As you do this you will see the new shoot ready to grow up in their place. Ensure you always leave about 3 leaves on each plant.