Chard is a biennial so even if you had the space to store your roots and assuming they survived transplanting they would then flower and die anyway. Chard is extremely hardy and even though you are in a cold area I should think they would be fine left in the garden maybe with some protection. Next spring they will leaf out and you can harvest them again until they throw up a flower stalk. If you dig one up you will find that the roots can be very large. I really don't think this is worth it but you could try one as an experiement.

Yes, theoretically po

not a great idea. If you are really in 6b, just cover the thing with leaves, then pull them back in March. It will come up in the spring, give a few useful leaves, then bolt.

There are really few plants worth overwintering for early spring consumption (IMHO, only cold hardy lettuce, arugula, and corn salad), and chard is not one of them. Note that other veggies are worth having through the winter for winter consumption, such as radicchio and kale.

Agree - in your zone just mulch them well. The containers ones will need some extra protection around the pot. You'll get some early harvest from them but IMO it's not really worth the carryover.

Dave

I do not think it will work in the refrigerator. However, I kept Chard alive real easy last year all winter in the attic. Just keep it cool in the attic and moist enough that it does not dry out. and they will come alive in the spring. worked like a charm for me. you can put them by a cold attic window to keep the cool. they will NOT grow. the window is not needed because they do not grow. but it will be colder by the window. you do not want it so cold they freeze too much.

I will guess my attic goes down to say 40 F but not below 32 F for sure. I do not get any freezing there. but might go below 40 F

because it is so cold in the attic the soil stays wet a long time so be careful on the soil. you only want to keep the roots moist so they do not dry out. so make sure they drain and do not wet again until they are dry. do not try to get them to grow.

I did Bright Lights. they went to seed very early in the spring. do not expect to harvest food. you will get seeds.

the ones I kept alive last winter were planted and grown in small containers about a one quart size. I did not dig them up in the fall sine they were already in the pot. I left them in the pots for the seeds. It would have been much better to plant the pots the 2nd year.

Chard can cope with temps below freezing so there is no problem going below 32f. Maybe it's down to my different climate but chard is well worth overwintering outdoors in my garden. In fact that is largely what it is grown for here - as a winter vegetable. It provides a good supply of greens very late and very early in the year when there is not much else about. I let a few flower every year and it self seeds easily. I then just transplant the babies to where I want them. Some people mention chard in containers but I wonder how much they can actually harvest in this way. Chard cooks down like spinach and for four people you need a good carrier bag full of leaves. Much more than you'd get from a few plants.

Biennial? I could have sworn you could get a few years out of it. That changes my plans. Most of my chard is in pots unfortunately, so it could get to 10 degrees during winters coldest nights. I doubt they'd survive that. Thanks for the help.

I had a related experience this year that some of you may be able to throw some light on: I tilled up the previous year's chard patch and planted tomatoes and summer squash there. I didn't do a very thorough job of tossing out the lumpy chard roots that came up. 5 of these took root and began sending up vigorous leaves. And they did not go to seed! In fact, they were more vigorous and healthy than those in my new-planted bed. I imagine that those root chunks were probably slashed by the tiller blades.
I wonder if there's help for the original poster here: let your chard plants over-winter, and then dig them up and replant next spring, maybe cutting some in half.
Any response/opinions out there? tomatobob

That's an interesting idea. Anyone with experience on dividing chard roots?

no, but I've cut the large root of some beat greens into several pieces and replanted them. They all grew new leaves, but only one put up a flower stalk.

Since it was mid-late summer, none of the plants really flourished as well as the root had done the preceding winter and spring so I threw them out. But I wouldn't be afraid to try it with chard after that experience.