We have swiss chard growing in self watering containers in full sun. They were grown from seed in the container. Even though they are fully hydrated, ours always wilt or keel over in the hot sun, which is practically every day during summer here. They perk right up after sundown. They continue to grow nicely, deep green with crisp stems. If you saw them in mid-day, you would think they were goners. Unless the leaves on your chard look sunburned or damaged, I think it may be normal for chard to droop in hot direct sun.

that sound fairly natural to me, the west side of course is teh hottest sun and often the longest period, western aspects can also be dryer. we grow our chard/silverbeet in the winter as plants with large leaf areas do go into that self preservation wilt mode in the heat of the noon day sun so to speak. this is to help cut down respiration/moisture loss.

so mulching heavily will go some way to helping it may go a long way also, this will help keep in moisture and keep the root runs insulated.

once mulched a good water 2 or 3 times a week should be heaps, done in the later afternoon. but so long as the plants revive after the sun the moisture level will be ok, just that wilting can interupt their productivity. but good picks should occur.

you could also creat some late arvo' shade for them using shade cloth.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page

Well, based on responses, sounds like it's not completely unusual for them to wilt. (They do look pretty pethetic) LOL. In past years, I had grown chard on the NORTH side of the house. They got early morning sun through about 4:30pm, as opposed to 2pm thru 7:30. Never wilted, and grew huge! These just aren't nearly as large...probably spending alot of energy "recovering" everyday instead of growing (?). I'll try mulching.

Thanks,

Paul