In 2021, Dean assessed 6 varieties of quinoa under organic management practices. The goal was to choose the best suited variety for future large-scale production and direct market sales to local consumers.

In a Nutshell

• Quinoa is a slow growing, non-competitive plant that can be a finicky crop to produce!
• It’s hard to differentiate between closely related weeds such as lamb’s quarters during the first 8 weeks of production.
• In a direct seeded quinoa crop, traditional large scale organic weeding practices were challenging, and the use of a rotary hoe was deemed impractical.
• Buffy and Brightest Brilliant Rainbow were the best performers in this trial under 2021 conditions.