Colorado quinoa
Chenopodium quinoa
Last edited on October 09, 2019. View history
Quinoa
How to sow quinoa: Direct seed outdoors, thin to 10cm
Sun requirement for quinoa: Plant in Full Sun
Quinoa is a flowering plant in the Amaranth family. It is a herbaceous annual plant grown as a grain crop for its edible seeds. It is a pseudocereal rather than a true cereal because it is not a grass. Quinoa prefers cool weather, but can only tolerate light frosts. It is somewhat drought tolerant. Quinoa is ready for harvest when the plants are dry and the leaves have fallen off.
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Quinoa facts
Lifespan
Annual
living and reproducing in a single year or less
25 weeks
median lifespan
Row Spacing
10cm
Optimal temperature
14–18 °C
Absolute temperature
2–35 °C
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal rainfall
500–1000 mm/year
Absolute rainfall
250–2600 mm/year
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal soil pH
5.5–8
Absolute soil pH
4.5–9.5
FAO EcoCrop
Crop cycle
90–240 days
FAO EcoCrop
Max altitude
4000 m
FAO EcoCrop
Optimal light
very bright to clear skies
FAO EcoCrop
What are growing degree days?
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
For quinoa, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 2°C and a shortest growing cycle of 90 days at its best temperature, about 1260 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your quinoa will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
How members grow quinoa
Sunniness
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Planted from
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Varieties of quinoa
Where quinoa grow
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
What people are saying about quinoa
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Who's planted quinoa
- ypgarden Garden · Mountain View, CA
ypgarden
Quinoa harvests
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 90 to 240 days.
From the growing cycle in the FAO EcoCrop database, which is the same wherever it is grown.
Ecological requirements
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Chenopodium quinoa Willd.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Caryophyllidae Caryophyllales Chenopodiaceae |
|---|---|
| Killing temperature | growth: -8 °C, rest: -8 °C |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | heavy, medium, light |
| Optimal soil fertility | moderate |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
Learn more about quinoa
Resources outside Growstuff.
