Best Medium For Chard In Pots

[donksey]

I wondered what you find to be the best medium for growing veg such as Swiss chard and beet leaf in pots.
Would neat multipurpose compost be adequate or do you have a certain mix with soil or anything else that you favour?

[BertieFox]

All I know is that chard grows really well here in our very heavy clayey soil. I think the problem in pots is that they won't grow very large and the plants in the open ground become enormous with huge roots like enormous parsnips. Growing young chard for salad leaves should be fine in pots though.

I would think multipurpose compost would be a bit light for them (and expensive as they grow so easily) so I would think you would be better with ordinary garden soil, with a bit of sand mixed in perhaps for drainage.

We sowed chard the first year we got here, allow several plants to go up to seed every year, and now it grows all over the place in the veggie garden, and I tend to allow plants to grow in the paths and at the ends of the beds. A truly great vegetable as you can eat it young in the spring, harvest more in autumn, and then let it overwinter to have more greens when there is little else.

[Scarlet]

I think they will grow in anything, they aren't fussy. But if you want to let them grow to full size, get the biggest pots you can find. They can be huge.