Herb · Apiaceae
When to plant caraway
A biennial that makes only leaves in its first year and seeds in its second, so the sowing date decides a harvest fifteen months away.
Sow direct
3 weeks before
Counted from your last spring frost.
Days to maturity
240-300
From sowing to a first picking.
Frost tolerance
Very hardy
How much cold the plant itself will take.
Those weeks become real dates once you name a place.
Timing, in frost-relative terms
Seed packets rarely give calendar dates, because a date that suits one latitude is wrong at another. They give offsets from the last spring frost instead, and those offsets are what make caraway plantable anywhere.
- Sow direct 3 weeks before the last frost.
- Expect 240–300 days to maturity, counted from sowing.
- Can also be sown in late summer for an autumn crop or to overwinter.
Getting the timing right
Sow direct three weeks before the last frost, or in late summer for seed the following year. Do not transplant - the taproot resents it and the plant bolts.
Frost tolerance
Overwinters reliably to about -20C, which it must do to flower at all.
Classified as very-hardy, with damage expected below -20°C (-4°F)-4°F (-20°C).