Magdalena Acelgas

This chard is great, it grew all winter for me and is very hardy. Glad I tried it.
This is a keeper in my Chihuahuan Desert container garden!

I love chard, but when I've grown standard varieties at home, they've either been really stemmy, so savoyed that bugs hide in the ruffles and it's difficult to clean them, they haven't been very productive, or sometimes all three. Magdalena acelgas is everything I want in a chard. It has shorter, smaller stems. It stays compact while also producing crazy layers of leaves. The leaves are smooth with very little to no savoy. And on top of that, it tastes great and was easy to germinate. I am super impressed!

Live in NW Tucson. This is my second planting of Magdalena. My first try was a spring planting growing over the summer and my harvest was meh. Tried again planting in the fall and my chard has exploded this March. Big beautiful green plants. I don’t know what to do with it all. I didn’t bother thinning them. They’re a bit crowded but seemingly happy.

I’d hoped to grow this plant as an experiment in my early summer Wisconsin garden. Germination was poor - probably only 10%. It’s not really growing - still only the two cotyledons. I’m disappointed though not unhappy that it’s not growing. (After all, it’s a trial) I can’t explain the poor germination though.

Too many greens planted at same time. They all grew really well but I couldn’t figure out which it was. Seed packet pictures didnt help