I have only ever direct sown them ouyside, but I wait until the clump has leaves about two inches long, and then I thin all but one for salad greens.

Maybe, when you transplant them, you can break the cell up and get individuals?

You must thin them though, they will not grow as big in clumps. I always try a few each year and it never fails to disappoint.

"I always try a few each year..."

I like that you do that little experiment. We gardeners need to do more of that. It can be easy and can give positive answers to our questions.

Jim

Chard is similar to beets. The seed is actually a cluster of seeds. You will need to thin them to one.

Jay

I tried Chard for the first time this year, and that is what I experienced with both varieties I planted! I know I shouldn't, but I tried to use as many of the seedlings as I could. Most of them made it. It was nice to have extra anyway, because occasionally a bird or something will attack a seedling. I planted mine in my square foot garden, 4 per square.

Thanks all for your replies.

I planted some in bunches, and others I divided. Separating the bunches into individual seedlings is exceedingly time consuming.

Next time I plant Swiss Chard seeds, the smallest seeds will be used first in the hope that they'll grow just one strong seedling, saving me work and time.

Thanks again for your replies. Happy gardening...

I hope this doesn't confuse everything, but I wouldn't thin them like that. Each seed of the chard variety (beets as well) do produce several shoots. However, this is how they grow. If you ever pulled up a single beet, it has several shoots growing above the ground. It is the same with a chard plant. Each plant has several shoots.

I was confused by this as well. I was very careful to put only one seed in each spot, but came up with all these different shoots. They were left alone and have been very, very healthy and productive.

It is only my opinion, but I say leave them alone, it is how they are supposed to grow;)

Thanks!!

g

I plant 4-5 swiss chard seed in seed starting mix in a 3oz solo cup w/ holes poked in the bottom. I end up with about 15-20 little plants which I seperate out and plant. 24 out of the 25 plant are doing great. I like doing this with Bright Lights so that I have a bed of nicely mixed colors, instead of a whole bed of pink chards. I've read that swiss chard does not like to be transplanted, but it has worked great for me.

Good gardening, Mary

It all depends on soil quality. If your soil is rich, your plants may do just fine in a clump, and in fact grow larger and stronger because of the competition. However, if you have poor quality soil, you would be better off thinning to just 1 seedling. Hope this helps!

Isabel - This thread is eleven years old.

But if one really wants to take ownership of a question, it's wise to just ask it, instead of glomming onto an old one. You showed up to read an ancient thread? The OP is asking a question, and the OP is long gone.

The answer, as explained more than a decade ago, is that chard is in the beet family, and they all have seed balls that are multiples of seeds.

It’s redundant to ask the question again when the answer is right here. It’s here twice, in fact, since you just repeated what was already in the thread, daninthedirt - so it would be doubly redundant to ask it all over again. I don’t think it’s necessary or at all helpful to make people feel badly for asking or answering a question and trying to be helpful. There’s no rule about how to do this. You do it your way and others will do it their way.

Speaking of glomming onto old questions ....