Last edited on November 01, 2026. View history
Red Orach
Red Orach
A variety of orach
An orach with magenta leaves, eaten like spinach raw or cooked, with small leaves best raw. One of the seven vegetables that our ancestors were eating several thousand years ago. Self seeds easily. Direct sow in spring without covering the seed, or sow in trays at 2.5 cm spacing, also uncovered, prick out at the first two leaves and transplant at 6 cm high at 30 cm diagonal spacing. From Christchurch.
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Red orach facts
Lifespan
Crop cycle
Max altitude
Optimal light
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 red orach, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 3°C and a shortest growing cycle of 120 days at its best temperature, about 2040 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 red orach 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.
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Time to harvest
If sown now, expect a first harvest in about 120 to 150 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 Atriplex hortensis L.
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Caryophyllidae Caryophyllales Chenopodiaceae |
|---|---|
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | annual |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | medium (50-150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | light |
| Optimal soil fertility | low |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells), excessive (dry/moderately dry) |
| Optimal soil salinity | medium (4-10 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours) |
Learn more about red oraches
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