Thanks everyone for your responses. Fordhook Giant was one that I was considering growing, I am so happy to hear that you believe the leaf minors do not bother it as much. My guess is that the fact that Foodhook Giant grows fast probably helps against the leaf minors. Last year I had big problems with leaf minors. Wiped out all my beets and swiss chard. I have never had a problem with leaf minors destroying my beets before, always got almost perfect leaves. Last year was the first time I tried growing swiss chard (Bright Lights), and they did not even have a chance because of the leaf minors. I am hoping to get a hoop house up in the spring that I can grow my greens in to protect them from leaf minors and flea beetles (which I have always had problems with). I think I may have been planing on ordering the Perpetual Spinach / Leaf Beet, not sure though. I know I did read about that somewhere. I am going to have to do some research on all the other varieties everyone mentioned, they all sound very interesting. Thanks again everyone, now I am off to look up all the different types mentioned.

I hope this doesn't confuse everything, but I wouldn't thin them like that. Each seed of the chard variety (beets as well) do produce several shoots. However, this is how they grow. If you ever pulled up a single beet, it has several shoots growing above the ground. It is the same with a chard plant. Each plant has several shoots. I was confused by this as well. I was very careful to put only one seed in each spot, but came up with all these different shoots. They were left alone and have been very, very healthy and productive. It is only my opinion, but I say leave them alone, it is how they are supposed to grow;) Thanks!! g

Swiss chard is apparently poisonous to me. Although I grew up eating it, if I eat it now I get to experience a very violent, painful total system purge similar to the effects of food poisoning. Sure that it couldn't really be the healthy Swiss chard I'm growing organically in my garden that was causing this food poisoning reaction, I sautéed some chard for supper last night. Suffice it to say, it was a long, most miserable night, and sadly I have crossed chard off of my list of veggies I enjoy.

Hi and thank you everyone. I saw rampant leaf mining on the seedlings. I removed the affected leaves because if the larvae were still in there I did not want them to complete their life cycle. These are the eggs I took pictures of today. Many a times the leaf mining tunnels start right from the eggs. There are at least several species of insects that have leaf mining larvae. That is what I understand. I have seen pictures of white eggs exactly as above described for leaf mining insects. I dont think I have been negligent. It is hard to describe how fast things are going from zero to decimation. Well I hope to get my whole lot of leafy greens in the ground in the next three days. Its good to know that in ground the plants will become far more robust. @zeedman Zone 5 Wisconsin: Thank you. Good to know starting over in a doable option!