What to do when Swiss chard blooms and shoots?

In addition to salads or spinach, it can also happen with chard under unfavorable circumstances that it blooms. The question arises as to what can be done with the chard plants and how best to prevent them from shooting.

Recognize shot chard plants

Since chard leaf in particular has large leaves, the flowers are difficult to see at the beginning. Only when the flower stalk pushes out over the leaves does it become apparent that the vegetables are in bloom. A growth spurt is also suspect. The flowers on the peduncle are rather inconspicuous and resemble the sorrel flowers.

edibility

When Swiss chard blooms, the main changes are the tissue structure of the plants. The stems and leaves become harder, stems also fibrous. So they are no longer so pleasant to eat and they also no longer taste so good. Generally speaking, leafy vegetables that shoot become inedible.

However, the plants are not directly poisonous either, they are still edible. While with salad or spinach the nitrate content increases, when they shoot, more oxalic acid is accumulated in the Swiss chard, similar to that in rhubarb. This means that you shouldn't eat so much of it at once.

Note: Too much oxalic acid promotes kidney stones.

Use and processing

If it is still to be eaten, the shot Swiss chard is harvested as quickly as possible. Since the highest concentration of oxalic acid is in the stems, these are removed. If the leaves are tasty, they can still be used normally. Leftovers are frozen.
If it turns out that the vegetables are inedible, the first step is to cut off the entire plant close to the ground. If the leafy vegetables sprout again, the leaves should taste completely normal again. If this is not the case, the only thing left to do is to completely remove the chard plants from the bed and to compost them. If you want to continue harvesting chard leaf, you will need to re-sow it. However, it will take a while until the next harvest.

Prevent blooming

One of the best measures is to only cultivate the chard once a year. In the first year, the vegetables only begin to bloom under adverse circumstances. These include:

• great drought
• wrong nutrient supply
• wrong location (too warm)

So that you don't notice too late that your Swiss chard is blooming, check it regularly when you water it. Regular watering is also a good measure against blooming.
If flower stalks are recognizable, they are immediately broken off or torn out, with a little luck the plant will be prevented from blooming and will sprout new leaves. You should always harvest the leaves as young as possible.
Another way to prevent shot chard plants is to only grow shot-resistant varieties. However, even these varieties do not give a 100% guarantee, they are just less likely to bloom.

Note: Seed-proof varieties are usually not bolt-proof because they have to flower in order to gain new seeds.

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