Pak choi · Renca, Santiago Metropolitan, Chile
When to plant pak choi in Renca
Main outdoor window
31 Aug - 14 Sep
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 September
In Renca, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
10-25 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 Renca
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
17-31 Aug
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for autumn
8-29 Mar
Counting back 69 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
31 Aug - 14 Sep
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
7-21 Sep
One week before your last frost.
Harvest
10-25 Oct
Pak choi through the year
Against the frost risk in Renca
Why these dates
The autumn sowing is the dependable one. Spring sowings bolt readily unless made very early or grown under cover.
Handles a few degrees of frost. A hard freeze destroys the succulent midribs.
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. Pak choi are timed from 4 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 1 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Renca.
The median frost-free season here is 265 days, against 40 to 55 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Renca
Other vegetables to time
Growing pak choi in Renca
When should I plant pak choi in Renca?
Aim for 31 Aug - 14 Sep in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Sep - 5 Oct - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pak choi be ready to harvest in Renca?
Expect to start picking around 10-25 Oct, based on 40 to 55 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will pak choi tolerate?
Handles a few degrees of frost. A hard freeze destroys the succulent midribs.