Endive · Shanghai, Shanghai, China
When to plant endive in Shanghai
Main outdoor window
16 Feb - 9 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
2 March
In Shanghai, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Aug - 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 Shanghai
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
19 Jan - 9 Feb
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for autumn
31 Jul - 21 Aug
Counting back 114 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
16 Mar - 6 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Sow direct
16 Feb - 9 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
1 Aug - 30 Nov
Endive through the year
Against the frost risk in Shanghai
Why these dates
Sow from two weeks after the last frost through midsummer for autumn heads. Early sowings bolt, so this is one to hold back rather than rush.
Hardy to about -6C, and blanching heads under a pot also shelters them from the first frosts.
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. Endive are timed from 6 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Shanghai.
The median frost-free season here is 287 days, against 80 to 100 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Shanghai
Other vegetables to time
Growing endive in Shanghai
When should I plant endive in Shanghai?
Aim for 16 Feb - 9 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 28 Feb - 21 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will endive be ready to harvest in Shanghai?
Expect to start picking around 1 Aug - 30 Nov, based on 80 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will endive tolerate?
Hardy to about -6C, and blanching heads under a pot also shelters them from the first frosts.