Amaranth · Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
When to plant amaranth in Skardu
Main outdoor window
21 Jun - 12 Jul
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 June
In Skardu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
29 Sep - 29 Oct
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 Skardu
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
17 May - 7 Jun
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
21 Jun - 12 Jul
One week after your last frost.
Plant out
28 Jun - 19 Jul
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
29 Sep - 29 Oct
Amaranth through the year
Against the frost risk in Skardu
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 Skardu.
The median frost-free season here is 95 days, against 100 to 130 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Skardu
Other grains to time
Growing amaranth in Skardu
When should I plant amaranth in Skardu?
Aim for 21 Jun - 12 Jul in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 3-24 Jul - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will amaranth be ready to harvest in Skardu?
Expect to start picking around 29 Sep - 29 Oct, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
Can you grow amaranth in Skardu?
Your frost-free season is about 95 days. This crop needs roughly 100 days from planting out, so it will not ripen outdoors here without a greenhouse, a cloche or an early cultivar.
How much frost will amaranth tolerate?
Killed by the first frost at either end of the season - it has no cold tolerance at all.