Patty pan squash · Baishan, Jilin, China
When to plant patty pan squash in Baishan
Main outdoor window
22 May - 12 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
8 May
In Baishan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jul - 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 Baishan
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 Apr - 8 May
Three weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
22 May - 12 Jun
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
22 May - 12 Jun
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Oct
Patty pan squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Baishan
Why these dates
Sow two weeks after the last frost. Pick constantly from midsummer; the plant crops until the first frost provided nothing is left to mature on it.
Killed at 0C, with no partial hardiness at all. The whole plant collapses the morning after the first frost.
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. Patty pan squash are timed from 3 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Baishan.
The median frost-free season here is 149 days, against 50 to 65 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Baishan
Other vegetables to time
Growing patty pan squash in Baishan
When should I plant patty pan squash in Baishan?
Aim for 22 May - 12 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 27 May - 17 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will patty pan squash be ready to harvest in Baishan?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jul - 31 Oct, based on 50 to 65 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will patty pan squash tolerate?
Killed at 0C, with no partial hardiness at all. The whole plant collapses the morning after the first frost.