Lettuce · Weinan, Shaanxi, China
When to plant lettuce in Weinan
Main outdoor window
2-16 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 March
In Weinan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
16 Apr - 1 May
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 Weinan
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
9-23 Feb
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for autumn
14 Aug - 4 Sep
Counting back 74 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
2-16 Mar
Three weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
9-23 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
16 Apr - 1 May
Lettuce through the year
Against the frost risk in Weinan
Why these dates
Sow every ten days from six weeks before last frost. Pause through midsummer, then resume for an autumn crop - late sowings are often the best of the year.
Tolerates -3C and a light frost actually sweetens the leaf. Seed germinates poorly above 25C, which is the more common problem.
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. Lettuce 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 Weinan.
The median frost-free season here is 240 days, against 45 to 60 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Weinan
Other vegetables to time
Growing lettuce in Weinan
When should I plant lettuce in Weinan?
Aim for 2-16 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 20 Mar - 3 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lettuce be ready to harvest in Weinan?
Expect to start picking around 16 Apr - 1 May, based on 45 to 60 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will lettuce tolerate?
Tolerates -3C and a light frost actually sweetens the leaf. Seed germinates poorly above 25C, which is the more common problem.