New Zealand spinach · Wuhan, Hubei, China
When to plant new zealand spinach in Wuhan
Main outdoor window
28 Feb - 21 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
21 February
In Wuhan, 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 Wuhan
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
24 Jan - 14 Feb
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
28 Feb - 21 Mar
One week after your last frost.
Sow direct
28 Feb - 21 Mar
One week after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jun - 31 Oct
New Zealand spinach through the year
Against the frost risk in Wuhan
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 Wuhan.
The median frost-free season here is 289 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 Wuhan
Other vegetables to time
Growing new zealand spinach in Wuhan
When should I plant new zealand spinach in Wuhan?
Aim for 28 Feb - 21 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 17 Mar - 7 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will new zealand spinach be ready to harvest in Wuhan?
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.