Lentil · Xinzhou, Shanxi, China
When to plant lentils in Xinzhou
Main outdoor window
30 Mar - 20 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
27 April
In Xinzhou, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
18 Jun - 18 Jul
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 Xinzhou
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 direct
30 Mar - 20 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
18 Jun - 18 Jul
Lentils through the year
Against the frost risk in Xinzhou
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 Xinzhou.
The median frost-free season here is 162 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 Xinzhou
Other grains to time
Growing lentils in Xinzhou
When should I plant lentils in Xinzhou?
Aim for 30 Mar - 20 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 15 Apr - 6 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lentils be ready to harvest in Xinzhou?
Expect to start picking around 18 Jun - 18 Jul, 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.