Pak choi · Shangzhi, Heilongjiang, China
When to plant pak choi in Shangzhi
Main outdoor window
22 Apr - 6 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
6 May
In Shangzhi, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1-16 Jun
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 Shangzhi
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
8-22 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for autumn
5-26 Jul
Counting back 69 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
22 Apr - 6 May
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
29 Apr - 13 May
One week before your last frost.
Harvest
1-16 Jun
Pak choi through the year
Against the frost risk in Shangzhi
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 Shangzhi.
The median frost-free season here is 151 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 Shangzhi
Other vegetables to time
Growing pak choi in Shangzhi
When should I plant pak choi in Shangzhi?
Aim for 22 Apr - 6 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 26 Apr - 10 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pak choi be ready to harvest in Shangzhi?
Expect to start picking around 1-16 Jun, 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.