Mint · Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
When to plant mint in Skardu
Main outdoor window
17 May - 7 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 June
In Skardu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
16 Jul - 15 Aug
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 Skardu
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
17 May - 7 Jun
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
16 Jul - 15 Aug
Mint through the year
Against the frost risk in Skardu
Why these dates
Establish from a division rather than seed - seed-grown mint is variable and often poorly flavoured. Cut back hard midsummer for fresh growth.
Dies back to the root in winter and returns reliably from -25C. Frost is irrelevant to an established plant.
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. Mint are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Skardu.
Growing mint in Skardu
When should I plant mint in Skardu?
Aim for 17 May - 7 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 29 May - 19 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will mint be ready to harvest in Skardu?
Expect to start picking around 16 Jul - 15 Aug, based on 60 to 90 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will mint tolerate?
Dies back to the root in winter and returns reliably from -25C. Frost is irrelevant to an established plant.