Chenopodium quinoa
Quinoa
At a glance
- Light
- Full sun
- Spacing
- 30 cm, rows 40 cm
- Lifespan
- Annual
- Sowing
- Apr–May
- Harvest
- Sep–Oct
- Hardiness
- Cold damage below −2 °C
- Water need
- Low
Photo: Maurice Chédel · Public Domain · Source
This description was machine-translated.
Description
Quinoa is a low-maintenance pseudo-cereal from the Andes that grows well as a summer vegetable. The plant produces tall panicles with countless small seeds and prefers a sunny, warm location. The young leaves are edible and can be prepared like spinach. Mature seeds have a bitter protective layer of saponins that should be thoroughly washed off before consumption. Quinoa tolerates drought well and is rarely affected by pests, making it a valuable garden plant.
Care instructions
Sow quinoa from mid-April to early May directly in the garden once the soil has warmed. The plant prefers a well-drained, low- to medium-nutrient soil and requires little water; avoid waterlogged soil. Thin seedlings to a spacing of about 25 to 30 cm so the panicles can develop strongly. Harvest the panicles in September or early October when the seeds are hard and easily fall off, then dry them in a dry, airy place. Before eating, wash the seeds several times in clear water to remove the bitter saponins.
The care notes were machine-translated from German.
Garden year
SowingApr–May
HarvestSep–Oct
Germination
- Soil temperature
- from 8 °C, ideally 20 °C
- Days to sprout
- 3 to 7 days
- Light
- Needs darkness to sprout
- Sowing depth
- 1 cm
- How to start
- Sow straight into the bed
Soil & site
Soil pH
Soil type
well-drained, sandy, lean, dry
Quinoa likes it loose and free-draining; it cannot tolerate waterlogged soils at all. A sandy to loamy-sandy soil with few nutrients is quite enough for it, as soil that is too rich only promotes soft foliage instead of strong panicles. It copes well with a slightly alkaline to neutral pH and also tolerates lean, dry ground surprisingly well.
Quinoa belongs to the goosefoot family and should therefore not follow chard, spinach or beetroot directly on the same plot.
Feeding
Light feeder
Quinoa needs hardly any feeding; a portion of mature compost when planting in spring is usually enough for the whole season. Soil that is too rich in nutrients lets the plants grow lushly, but less sturdy, and they set fewer grains. If anything, a light dressing of compost at planting is entirely sufficient.
Overwintering
Quinoa is an annual and frost-tender, so overwintering is not intended. After harvest in late summer, clear the plants completely from the bed and let the plot rest for the next season or plant it with a green manure.
Propagation
Methods
- From seed
Quinoa is propagated exclusively by seed, best sown directly outdoors from mid-May · week 20, when frosts are no longer a threat. Cover the fine seeds with only a shallow layer of soil, as they need light to germinate. With even moisture they germinate within a few days. After emergence, thin the seedlings to 20 to 30 cm apart so that strong panicles can form.
For your garden
Grow Quinoa yourself
Gartenkern tells you when frost is coming, when to sow and when to harvest, for your location.
Free, no time limit
Varieties
2 varieties‘Faro’
You can grow quinoa, a goosefoot plant from the Andes, as a pseudocereal in the DACH climate on warm, sunny sites.
‘Regalona’
Regalona is a Chilean quinoa variety suited to growing in temperate climates such as Central Europe.
Notes from real gardens
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