Quinoa · Kaifeng, Henan, China
When to plant quinoa in Kaifeng
Main outdoor window
15 Mar - 5 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
22 March
In Kaifeng, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
3 Jul - 2 Aug
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 Kaifeng
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.
Sow direct
15 Mar - 5 Apr
One week before your last frost.
Harvest
3 Jul - 2 Aug
Quinoa through the year
Against the frost risk in Kaifeng
Why these dates
Sow direct around the last frost date. Quinoa needs a long season but dislikes hot nights during flowering, which makes a cool upland summer ideal and a hot humid one poor.
Young plants tolerate about -3C, and the mature crop takes light frost while drying down, which is useful at the end of a short season.
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. Quinoa are timed for direct sowing 1 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Kaifeng.
The median frost-free season here is 240 days, against 110 to 140 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Kaifeng
Other grains to time
Growing quinoa in Kaifeng
When should I plant quinoa in Kaifeng?
Aim for 15 Mar - 5 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 28 Mar - 18 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will quinoa be ready to harvest in Kaifeng?
Expect to start picking around 3 Jul - 2 Aug, based on 110 to 140 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will quinoa tolerate?
Young plants tolerate about -3C, and the mature crop takes light frost while drying down, which is useful at the end of a short season.