Quinoa · Richmond, Virginia, United States
When to plant quinoa in Richmond
Main outdoor window
22 Mar - 12 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
29 March
In Richmond, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
10 Jul - 9 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 Richmond
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
22 Mar - 12 Apr
One week before your last frost.
Harvest
10 Jul - 9 Aug
Quinoa through the year
Against the frost risk in Richmond
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 Richmond.
The median frost-free season here is 221 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 Richmond
Other grains to time
Growing quinoa in Richmond
When should I plant quinoa in Richmond?
Aim for 22 Mar - 12 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 4-25 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will quinoa be ready to harvest in Richmond?
Expect to start picking around 10 Jul - 9 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.