Mizuna · Zaoyang, Hubei, China
When to plant mizuna in Zaoyang
Main outdoor window
10 Feb - 10 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
10 March
In Zaoyang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 May - 30 Nov
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 Zaoyang
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 overwintering
7-28 Sep
Counting back 59 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
10 Feb - 10 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
1 May - 30 Nov
Mizuna through the year
Against the frost risk in Zaoyang
Why these dates
Sow from four weeks before the last frost and every two weeks after. A late-summer sowing under cover picks through most of the winter.
Hardy to about -8C unprotected and considerably lower under a cloche, which makes it one of the most useful winter salad leaves.
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. Mizuna are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Zaoyang.
The median frost-free season here is 262 days, against 35 to 45 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Zaoyang
Other vegetables to time
Growing mizuna in Zaoyang
When should I plant mizuna in Zaoyang?
Aim for 10 Feb - 10 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 22 Feb - 22 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will mizuna be ready to harvest in Zaoyang?
Expect to start picking around 1 May - 30 Nov, based on 35 to 45 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will mizuna tolerate?
Hardy to about -8C unprotected and considerably lower under a cloche, which makes it one of the most useful winter salad leaves.