Amaranth · Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal
When to plant amaranth in Kathmandu
Main outdoor window
15 Jan - 5 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
8 January
In Kathmandu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
25 Apr - 25 May
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Kathmandu
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Start indoors
11 Dec - 1 Jan
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
15 Jan - 5 Feb
One week after your last frost.
Plant out
22 Jan - 12 Feb
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
25 Apr - 25 May
Amaranth through the year
Against the frost risk in Kathmandu
Why these dates
Sow after the last frost into warm soil. The seed is very fine and should barely be covered.
Killed by the first frost at either end of the season - it has no cold tolerance at all.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Amaranth are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Kathmandu.
Also in Kathmandu
Other grains to time
Growing amaranth in Kathmandu
When should I plant amaranth in Kathmandu?
Aim for 15 Jan - 5 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 15 Jan - 5 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will amaranth be ready to harvest in Kathmandu?
Expect to start picking around 25 Apr - 25 May, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will amaranth tolerate?
Killed by the first frost at either end of the season - it has no cold tolerance at all.