Lentil · Brooklyn, New York, United States
When to plant lentils in Brooklyn
Main outdoor window
1-22 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
29 March
In Brooklyn, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
20 May - 19 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 Brooklyn
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.
Sow for autumn
10-31 Jul
Counting back 124 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
1-22 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
20 May - 19 Jun
Lentils through the year
Against the frost risk in Brooklyn
Why these dates
Sow four weeks before the last frost. Lentils are short and easily flattened by rain, so a windless site and a firm seedbed both help at harvest.
Seedlings survive to about -6C, which is why lentils are sown far earlier than most pulses.
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. Lentils are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Brooklyn.
The median frost-free season here is 249 days, against 80 to 110 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Brooklyn
Other grains to time
Growing lentils in Brooklyn
When should I plant lentils in Brooklyn?
Aim for 1-22 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 11 Mar - 1 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lentils be ready to harvest in Brooklyn?
Expect to start picking around 20 May - 19 Jun, based on 80 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will lentils tolerate?
Seedlings survive to about -6C, which is why lentils are sown far earlier than most pulses.