Quinoa Seeds - Brightest Brilliant Rainbow, ORGANIC

Minimum Seeds per Packet: 180

Packet Weight: 1g

Planting Season: After Last Frost

Sowing Method: Direct Seed or Transplant

Seed Depth: 1/8"

Direct Seed Spacing: 1-2"

Soil Temperature: 65-80 ℉

Days to Sprout: 8-12

Mature Spacing: 18"

Sun Requirement: Full Sun or Partial Shade

Frost Tolerance: Frost Sensitive

Days to Harvest: 90-120

When to Seed Quinoa

Quinoa is a long season, warm weather crop - but is picky about how hot it gets. It grows best in summers where the temperature doesn’t go over 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of us should start the seeds indoors about four weeks before our last frost date and transplant them out after all danger of frost has passed. But if your season is long enough, go ahead and direct seed it out in the garden. It takes 90 to 120 days to mature, and must be harvested before a hard frost, so take this into account when planning your crop. 

Where to Plant Quinoa

Quinoa needs full sun, at least six hours per day, to grow and mature properly. That said, some shade during the hottest part of the day can be beneficial. It is adaptable to most soil types but the best results occur with fertile, well-draining, loamy soil. Mix in a couple inches of compost ahead of planting. Quinoa prefers a slightly acidic to neutral soil. 

Growing Quinoa

Sow seeds ⅛ inch deep and one to two inches apart, if direct seeding. As they grow, thin your seedlings, or transplant, at a mature planting distance of 18 inches. Quinoa is a tall plant and can reach between four and eight feet tall. A balanced fertilizer will do well at planting time and again four to six weeks after planting. 

Harvesting Quinoa

Mature quinoa is easier to harvest when you allow it to go through a light frost in the fall. The seed is ready to harvest when it is difficult to dent with your fingernail. Wait until the leaves start to fall off the plant to start harvesting. Bend the seed heads into a bucket and clip them off. Move them to a dry place and strip off the seeds using a gloved hand.

Quinoa, Chenopodium quinoa
Pollination, self/wind; Life Cycle, annual; Isolation Distance, 100-300 feet

Quinoa is gynomonoecious, meaning it has female and perfect (male and female parts in one) flowers on the same plant. Self-pollinated and wind-pollinated, most pollination is done by the flowers themselves, although wind-pollination is possible and so isolation distances should be observed. For good seed formation, quinoa needs an adequate frost-free period that is both not too hot and not too cold. It's the Goldilocks of the grain world, which is why it can be a challenge to grow to seed in many parts of North America. It's a beautiful plant though, so grain harvest should not be the only deciding factor to grow it.