Gardening with Wilson

For a long time, I have always thought that the growing silverbeets here in tropical Singapore was really not possible. Well known to be a leafy vegetable that is commonly grown in the temperate and subtropical areas of the world, the silver beet is also known as Swiss chard. It is a related to the common beet root and the silver beet’s scientific name is Beta vulgaris var. cicla and both belong to the same Chenopodiaceae family.

I was inspired to grow this vegetable after I have seen a fellow edibles plant gardening friend’s success in growing it. I wanted to try my hands to grow silver beet because of its lush appearance which I have seen in numerous vegetable growing books. The plant has large, fleshy, shiny green ribbed leaves, with stems that range from white to yellow and red depending on the cultivar.

At around the time of planting, I managed to get the seeds of the cultivar with white petioles. Recently, I have seen pots of silver beet with yellow and red leafstalks put up on sale in our local nurseries but I cannot be sure whether they have been grown here locally. We all know that many of our plants are imported and some even though they are said to be grown in Malaysia, they may also come from Cameron Highlands, where the climate is much cooler than the lowland tropics. 

From my experience of growing the silverbeet, I noticed that it is a plant that likes to be grown in very well draining soil. The ground must be well worked on to make it friable and open. Fertile soil that is generously supplemented with compost or a high nitrogen fertiliser will boost the growth rate. Plants do not like wet feet and they rot easily if the soil is too wet. The soil should be just moist to touch.

Plants also have a tendency to be ‘top heavy’, that is, they can collapse when the aerial growth gets too lush. I prop them up using sticks before that happens. Most importantly, never allow any part of the plant to get injured. Any open wound quickly leads to rotting of the surround tissues and plants die very quickly. In addition, grow the silverbeet under shelter as plants cannot withstand the heavy downpour that is commonly encountered in the tropics.   

I have tried eating some of the young and tender silver beet leaves which were picked from the plants that I have grown. However, I have to declare that I was not too used to its taste because the silver beet tasted quite bitter.  The texture was very similar to that of the common Spinach and Ceylon Spinach. My mother who helped me to cook the vegetable did so by stir-frying it, similar to how she prepares other Oriental leafy vegetables.