Well, at least you are in Texas, so you won't have a full grown chard before it's time to put it outside! I haven't planted anything other than leeks and onions, and I usually plant chard and kale directly into the ground as I only have time to get a single harvest.

That sure seems fast for germination and growth but I don't have any experience with greens in pots so maybe it's normal.

Happy gardening!

Annie

Actually, I've had chard in the ground for many months. This is an add-on. My earlier chard was somewhat frost damaged, but is resprouting. Before I saw that, I planted some more.

" only have time to get a single harvest." I don't know where you are but here chard is in the ground for months and harvestable all that time. Ie from one spring to the next, through the winter. Have you tried leaving it in the ground longer? Kale also stands all winter.

Exactly right. Chard is not a summer vegetable, at least around here. A bit hard to keep it going through a Central Texas summer. Though temps below 20F can damage it. But again, I've never seen such explosive germination. The resprouting of the freeze-damaged chard is also somewhat explosive, probably because the plants had well developed root systems.

Fresh lettuce seed will germinate in 2-3 days for me under lights.

Chard does well for me all summer long in Maine.

I've tried growing chard just once about 30 years ago, we didn't care for the flavor very much which fell short compared other "greens" that we like. It would not have survived long winters here either, maybe up until Xmas.. Do not recall the germination rate so my tidbit post is of little value, just got some time on my hands ;-)

Geez, let's compare summer in Maine to summer in Central Texas. We get an average of 30 days over 100F (got over 70 in 2023!), and the nighttime temp is rarely below 80F. Goodbye tomatoes! Heatzone 9. The only greens that do well in the summer here are tropical ones. I grow Malabar spinach and Sisso spinach, and they LOVE the heat. Curiously, you can nurse collards through summer here, with extra attention. Chard is hardy down to about 22F. So it depends how you define a hard freeze. For us, that's REALLY hard. But if the ground freezes, they're gone. Our ground never freezes.

That's interesting about lettuce germinating fast. I don't grow the stuff. We like chard better.

I'm sorry, Dan, I was only responding to Floral regarding where I was that I could only get one planting of chard.

I direct sow but I've never even had any germinate in 4 days, let alone grow an inch. I am envious of that, as well as the fact that it's an add-on.

Annie

Don, do you have any scientific documentation that the small seeds are slower to germinate than large seeds? Lettuce is pretty quick as well as radish and brassica seeds. But you must be correct, you are all about the science.

Robert, maybe you're querying me? It's just my experience that large seeds seem to germinate faster. I have most experience with cucurbits and, up until now, those germinated faster for me than anything else. That being said, this author seems to believe the opposite.

https://askgardening.com/does-seed-size-matter/

I think it has been established scientifically that for a given variety of plant, the larger seeds germinate faster, but that's a different question.

Well, my EarliDew Honeydews just came up in 4 days as well. Something in the air? Again, this is 70F, unsoaked seeds.

Wow. I'm still waiting for leeks. It's been 11 days, on heat and under lights and only two have peeked through. I guess they are going to wait for the snow to melt outside, LOL.

Annie

I'll be planting peas and lettuce seeds next week once the soil has dried out enough (got 2.25" rain yesterday). I'll try to report back on their germination rates, although these will be planted outside in the cold soil, indoors they both would sprout quicker fer sure.