Quinoa · Norfolk, Virginia, United States
When to plant quinoa in Norfolk
Main outdoor window
3-24 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
10 March
In Norfolk, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
21 Jun - 21 Jul
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 Norfolk
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
3-24 Mar
One week before your last frost.
Harvest
21 Jun - 21 Jul
Quinoa through the year
Against the frost risk in Norfolk
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 Norfolk.
The median frost-free season here is 272 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 Norfolk
Other grains to time
Growing quinoa in Norfolk
When should I plant quinoa in Norfolk?
Aim for 3-24 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Mar - 11 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will quinoa be ready to harvest in Norfolk?
Expect to start picking around 21 Jun - 21 Jul, 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.