Chard is biennial, so it won't go to seed until next year. Occasionally out of a row of plants you might get one or two that act like annuals, but you would have recognized these already by now. Chard overwinters easily, so you could keep them and try next year (you'll get some good late winter and spring greens as well).

In terms of getting a specific color, you would have to isolate the plants somehow (keep them from cross pollinating). Some simple mesh baggies tied over the flowers would be pretty easy.

Thanks fabaceae. That make sense. I had already decided to keep the plants through the winter, plus my kale. DON'T need the kale to seed!! That stuff doesn't know HOW to die!

Hm. I thought -chard- doesn't know how to die! Of course, my chard gets way too dry in the summer and has way too little fertilizer, so is stressed. Maybe on its third spring it will bolt...

merrybw, what kind of chard do you have? Besides my colored ones, I have some Swiss chard from an heirloom seed company.
They all seem to just keep on going. Any good recipes??

1 red-stemmed chard, and 1 white-stemmed chard. They came from a local organic plant nursery, so I've no idea where they came from.

Alas, I'm not very inventive when it comes to the chard-- they mostly go in salad, or spanakopita, or soup, or tomatillo-spinach sauce as a replacement for the spinach. They were planted for salads...

Thank you for telling about your heirloom seed company chard that keeps on going. I had thought my chard was a fluke.

My "Bright Lights" chard (grown from seed) went into its 3rd year last summer and I pulled them up cause they looked kind of odd as they developed a rather thick base. They, however, never set seed and I plan to sow new seeds that I purchased this year.
Molly