Lettuce · Xichang, Sichuan, China
When to plant lettuce in Xichang
Main outdoor window
5-19 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
26 March
In Xichang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
19 Apr - 4 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 Xichang
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
12-26 Feb
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for autumn
10-31 Aug
Counting back 74 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
5-19 Mar
Three weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
12-26 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
19 Apr - 4 May
Lettuce through the year
Against the frost risk in Xichang
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 Xichang.
The median frost-free season here is 232 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 Xichang
Other vegetables to time
Growing lettuce in Xichang
When should I plant lettuce in Xichang?
Aim for 5-19 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 22 Mar - 5 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lettuce be ready to harvest in Xichang?
Expect to start picking around 19 Apr - 4 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.