Aubergine · Yueyang, Hunan, China
When to plant aubergines in Yueyang
Main outdoor window
15 Mar - 5 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
22 February
In Yueyang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
19 May - 3 Jun
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 Yueyang
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.
Start indoors
28 Dec - 18 Jan
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
15 Mar - 5 Apr
Three weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
19 May - 3 Jun
Aubergines through the year
Against the frost risk in Yueyang
Why these dates
Aubergine roots resent disturbance and cold. Waiting an extra week for warm soil consistently outperforms planting early and hoping.
Killed at 0C and set back badly by anything under 10C. In cool-summer climates this crop belongs in a greenhouse or polytunnel.
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. Aubergines are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 3 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Yueyang.
The median frost-free season here is 283 days, against 65 to 80 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Yueyang
Other vegetables to time
Growing aubergines in Yueyang
When should I plant aubergines in Yueyang?
Aim for 15 Mar - 5 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 31 Mar - 21 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will aubergines be ready to harvest in Yueyang?
Expect to start picking around 19 May - 3 Jun, based on 65 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will aubergines tolerate?
Killed at 0C and set back badly by anything under 10C. In cool-summer climates this crop belongs in a greenhouse or polytunnel.