Quinoa plant Seeds – Chenopodium quinoa – Brightest Brilliant Rainbow Caribbeangardenseed

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100% open pollinated ,heirloom,organically Grown , Non GMO
Seeds Per Ounce: 20,000
Chenopodium quinoa
This diverse selection includes our most striking color choices. Hot pink to royal burgundy, red, orange, yellow, white, green, and every bright combination. Large, branching plants can reach 7’ tall. Farm Original Variety!
A high protein staple green and seed “grain” from the Andean highlands, with thicker and juicier leaves than lambs quarter, its close cousin. Leaves are a nice salad size with salty spinach-like flavor. Thrives in dry periods of summer. Sow 1” apart in rows for cutting 6-8” plants for greens, or space 12-14” apart for picking leaves (which may be followed by grain production). Maturing seed heads are very brightly colored, ornamental, and high yielding.

After decades of obscurity, Quinoa has recently swept to the attention of farmers and gardeners in North America. Washington State University has an extensive testing program ongoing to find South American varieties that will perform well in the Pacific Northwest. Quinoa is largely adapted to cool, dry, upland conditions, and will fail to make seed if temperatures are too hot for pollen tube development. This temperature sensitivity is variable across varieties. The Willamette Valley is too warm some years, and with warmer climates ahead, it is not too early to begin the process of adaptation.

Direct sow in late April to the end of May, while night temperatures are still cool. Optimal soil temperature for germination: 18-24°C (65-75°F). Seeds should germinate in 4-10 days.
Sow 5mm (¼”) deep, 10 seeds per 30cm (12″), and thin to 25-35cm (10-14″) between plants. If growing for baby leaf production, plants can be spaced closer together.
Growing
Ideal pH: 6.0-7.5. Use a well-drained, loamy soil with added orgnaic matter. Keep weeded, but otherwise quinoa is drought tolerant and undemanding. It’s a great plant for xeriscaping, and looks good at the back of a floral border.

Quinoa Cultivation for Grain:
As a mountain farmer from way back, quinoa has always been a natural crop for my home ground. Quinoa is a mountain peoples’ crop, particularly suited to marginal soils, cool nights, and dry conditions. I began growing it in 1983 on a mountain of glacial till near Puget Sound with great success, and never had a failure until recently, while sowing into great soil in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, where the nighttime temps are higher and grass seed fields are full of lygus bugs (that suck nutrients from blooming seedheads). Five miles away in the foothills where I live, simultaneous crops were as full as normal. We cannot say exactly why, but
we believe this relates to some critical threshold temperature for pollen tube development, a phenomenon well understood in growing seed of spinach, a relative of quinoa.

Plant from mid-April through May. Direct seed into 24″ rows. Thin to 3-4″ apart in the row to produce single-headed plants that mature uniformly for harvesting in a single pass. Maximum seed yield comes from 12″ or greater in-row spacing that makes a branched crop. This may require an initial harvest of primary heads, followed in another 7-14 days with a final harvest of whole plants. Harvest when seedheads are still brightly colored, and thresh with a rubbing action of the head (by hand or feet, or belt thresher). Grain is easy to clean with 1/8″ and 1/16″ hardware mesh, and careful winnowing.
Please Read
All seeds have been test sown to ensure germination. Please familiarize yourself with growing conditions and instructions for your seeds before you plant them, as all seeds are different. Basic growing instructions can be found in detail section of each listing.
We Cannot Guarantee how much you will be able to grow, as too many variables come into play, soil condition, your ability to garden, weather etc. I guarantee that they arrive as described and are in good viable condition and the germination rates are accurate.