New Zealand spinach · Moscow, Moscow, Russia
When to plant new zealand spinach in Moscow
Main outdoor window
9-30 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
2 May
In Moscow, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jun - 31 Oct
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 Moscow
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
4-25 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
9-30 May
One week after your last frost.
Sow direct
9-30 May
One week after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jun - 31 Oct
New Zealand spinach through the year
Against the frost risk in Moscow
Why these dates
Soak the hard seed overnight and sow a week after the last frost. Pick the growing tips continuously and the plant spreads sideways instead of setting seed.
Killed at 0C. It often self-seeds and returns the following year from seed that has overwintered in the soil, which can look like the plant surviving.
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. New Zealand spinach are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 1 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Moscow.
The median frost-free season here is 158 days, against 55 to 70 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Moscow
Other vegetables to time
Growing new zealand spinach in Moscow
When should I plant new zealand spinach in Moscow?
Aim for 9-30 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 May - 15 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will new zealand spinach be ready to harvest in Moscow?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jun - 31 Oct, based on 55 to 70 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will new zealand spinach tolerate?
Killed at 0C. It often self-seeds and returns the following year from seed that has overwintered in the soil, which can look like the plant surviving.