Parsley · Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
When to plant parsley in Shaoxing
Main outdoor window
21 Feb - 14 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
7 March
In Shaoxing, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
2-22 May
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 Shaoxing
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
10-31 Jan
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow for overwintering
6-27 Aug
Counting back 104 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
21 Feb - 14 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Plant out
21 Feb - 14 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
2-22 May
Parsley through the year
Against the frost risk in Shaoxing
Why these dates
Germination takes three to four weeks. Sow indoors eight weeks before last frost or direct once soil warms; either way, patience is required.
Survives -10C and often overwinters to produce an early spring crop before running to seed in its second year.
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. Parsley are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Shaoxing.
The median frost-free season here is 277 days, against 70 to 90 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Growing parsley in Shaoxing
When should I plant parsley in Shaoxing?
Aim for 21 Feb - 14 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 1-22 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will parsley be ready to harvest in Shaoxing?
Expect to start picking around 2-22 May, based on 70 to 90 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will parsley tolerate?
Survives -10C and often overwinters to produce an early spring crop before running to seed in its second year.