Last edited on 1 Nov 2026. View history

Lamb's Quarters

Chenopodium album

An ancient green leaf vegetable that grows as a weed in many places and is a great summer green. Delicious cooked at any stage of growth. Self seeds easily and can grow into bushes 1.5 m tall. Sow in trays in spring when the ground warms up, prick out at 2.5 cm and transplant at 5 to 10 cm high at 30 cm diagonal spacing. It can also be scatter sown over prepared soil as a carbon crop, kept moist for germination.

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Lamb's quarters facts

Lifespan

Annual living and reproducing in a single year or less

Varieties of lamb's quarters

Image of magenta spreen lamb's quarters

magenta spreen lamb's quarters

Chenopodium giganteum

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Ecological requirements

Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Chenopodium album L.

Family / Taxonomy Magnoliopsida
Caryophyllidae
Caryophyllales
Chenopodiaceae
Optimal temperature 12 - 18 °C
Absolute temperature 3 - 31 °C
Optimal rainfall 800 - 1200 mm/year
Absolute rainfall 300 - 3200 mm/year
Optimal soil pH 6.0 - 7.0
Absolute soil pH 4.2 - 8.2
Crop cycle 120 - 270 days
Life form herb
Life span annual
Habit erect
Optimal soil depth shallow (20-50 cm)
Optimal soil texture heavy, medium, light
Optimal soil fertility high
Optimal soil drainage well (dry spells)
Optimal soil salinity low (<4 dS/m)
Photoperiod long day (>14 hours)
Optimal light clear skies to very bright

Licensed under CC-BY-4.0 .

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) ECOCROP, the crop ecological requirements database. Version 1. https://data.apps.fao.org/catalog/dataset/ecocrop. Accessed through the CGIAR Climate Action Data Hub, https://cgiar-climate-data-hub.github.io/catalog/ecocrop_1/.

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