We're in zone 6, and usually let ours grow until other cool season crops are gone. It lasts all summer and into the fall for us, and I believe it is less bitter after a light frost...it will survive cooler weather very well, and only be killed by a hard freeze. You might find you could keep yours going for well into the winter, especially with the help of a bit of mulch, if it survives your zone 8 summer. I think it is a biennial, so if it is still alive for you next year, it will probably go to seed. The best way to harvest it is to cut off the outer stalks, leaving the central ones to keep producing. We usually wait until the stalks are about an inch wide, but it can be eaten at any size you wish; it doesn't seem to "toughen" as much as many other vegetables as it ages. The most basic way to cook it is to boil it as you would spinach. I usually cut the stalk part in bite-sized pieces and the leaves as I would for spinach. I don't like it partially cooked; cooking it well seems to modulate the flavor. I usually let it boil about twenty minutes, then probe a stalk with a fork to see if it is soft. If it is, then I eat one piece to see if it still has any crunch at all in it. If it does, I cook it longer, but you have to decide how you like it. I would never eat it raw. I suspect it may have chemicals in it, similar to New Zealand spinach, which are best cooked away. My DH likes it with vinegar, and I prefer it topped with butter or cheese (for cheese, just place the drained chard in a serving bowl, top the cooked chard with the cheese of your choice, and warm in microwave for a minute. I like to use cheddar). Recipe Source has a few recipes that use it, but I've never tried any of them. I used the stems once, cut long, as a substitute for lasagnia noodles (zucchini cut lengthwise could be used the same way). Swiss chard is a vegetable that really cries out for the attentions of a skilled chef. It has a slightly bitter, bland taste that needs complementation in the same way that eggplant and zucchini do. I suspect that long stir frying with onions and garlic would make it much more interesting; if done with fairly young leaves and stalks that might be a good way to have it. I never had Swiss chard before meeting my DH. He grew up in the Midwest, and his family did a lot of canning. One year their Swiss chard was the only crop to survive, so all that winter, that is what they ate. Needless to say, it was years before he became interested in it again...it's one of those vegetables you can usually depend upon, though, in a pinch. Here is a link that might be useful: Recipe Source ideas

adastra09 - as the others have mentioned, are you using a light set-up for your plants? If not, then you need one (see the FAQ here) and if so then either it isn't enough or it is too far away from the plants. Most young seedlings don't require any feeding. Plants yes, seedlings no. If your plants are already quite long and lanky with weak stems then there really isn't alot to can do to improve them except transplant them into larger containers and, when possible, plant them deeply up to just below the lowest set of leaves. But without sufficient light they will just stretch out all over again. Leafy greens, things that don't have stems but which grow from the base cluster can't be deep transplanted. In some cases you can give them a bit of a haircut back to about 3 inches and they will send up new leaves. But again without lots of light they will just stretch out again. So providing sufficient artificial light is the primary solution to your problem. That and not starting your plants so early. ;) Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Growing from Seed FAQ

Insect damage could be grasshoppers (on any growth), cabbage loopers/worms (on any growth), slugs/snails (especially on the new growth) or something I haven't encountered depending on where you live. Since you're noticing new leaf damage in the morning, I'd suspect snails and/or slugs, which are easily taken care of by dropping Sluggo on the surface of your potting mix around the plant. Cabbage loopers, either checking for eggs constantly, spraying BT or putting your tulle back on. Tulle would also work for grasshoppers as long as the leaves aren't touching it (here they'll chew right through tulle if the leaves touch it for some reason, and leave it alone if they don't). No idea on the bumpy orange areas, could just be environmental damage but again I'm not sure. You can still eat damaged leaves, just not pretty but still ok to eat after washing well. Or just cut off the damaged parts and eat around them if it grosses you out.

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!