Thursday, May 28, 2009

Hydroponic swiss chard

I read in a book on greenhouse gardening that the UK has more hobby greenhouses than any other country, and I believe it. I belong to a gardening forum that is mostly UK based folks. They have a section devoted to greenhouse gardening, and I placed a post asking if anyone else had tried to grow swiss chard or silverbeet under glass.

The first response was basically that greenhouses were more appropriate for tomatoes, cucumbers and eggplant, and why waste the space when it would just bolt to seed.

My reply was that it shows no sign of bolting, is doing great, and, you never know unless you try! Following my response another member wrote that she had grown chard in a poly tunnel for the last two years, and it grows so quickly she harvests it monthly, and it has never bolted.

This is the best looking batch of chard I have ever grown, and it sure looks better than anything I have ever purchased. I have started another batch to replace this batch. If it bolts; worse case scenario is that I will have a fresh batch of seed to work with indoors. It just shows that it can't hurt to try, you may be pleasantly surprised.




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