Pak choi · Shuangcheng, Heilongjiang, China
When to plant pak choi in Shuangcheng
Main outdoor window
12-26 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
26 April
In Shuangcheng, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
22 May - 6 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 Shuangcheng
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
29 Mar - 12 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for autumn
7-28 Jul
Counting back 69 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
12-26 Apr
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
19 Apr - 3 May
One week before your last frost.
Harvest
22 May - 6 Jun
Pak choi through the year
Against the frost risk in Shuangcheng
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 Shuangcheng.
The median frost-free season here is 162 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 Shuangcheng
Other vegetables to time
Growing pak choi in Shuangcheng
When should I plant pak choi in Shuangcheng?
Aim for 12-26 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Apr - 5 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pak choi be ready to harvest in Shuangcheng?
Expect to start picking around 22 May - 6 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.