Red cabbage · Beijing, Beijing, China
When to plant red cabbages in Beijing
Main outdoor window
18 Mar - 8 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
8 April
In Beijing, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 30 Nov
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 Beijing
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
11 Feb - 4 Mar
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Transplant
18 Mar - 8 Apr
Three weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
1 Sep - 30 Nov
Red cabbages through the year
Against the frost risk in Beijing
Why these dates
Start indoors about eight weeks before the last frost and plant out three weeks before it. The colour deepens in cool weather, so an autumn crop is better than a summer one.
Hardy to roughly -8C. Heads left standing take frost without splitting, which is the usual reason to leave them out rather than lift them early.
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. Red cabbages are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 3 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Beijing.
The median frost-free season here is 203 days, against 90 to 120 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Beijing
Other vegetables to time
Growing red cabbages in Beijing
When should I plant red cabbages in Beijing?
Aim for 18 Mar - 8 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 30 Mar - 20 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will red cabbages be ready to harvest in Beijing?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 30 Nov, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will red cabbages tolerate?
Hardy to roughly -8C. Heads left standing take frost without splitting, which is the usual reason to leave them out rather than lift them early.