Patty pan squash · Pingliang, Gansu, China
When to plant patty pan squash in Pingliang
Main outdoor window
27 Apr - 18 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
13 April
In Pingliang, 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 Pingliang
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
23 Mar - 13 Apr
Three weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
27 Apr - 18 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
27 Apr - 18 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Oct
Patty pan squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Pingliang
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 Pingliang.
The median frost-free season here is 195 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 Pingliang
Other vegetables to time
Growing patty pan squash in Pingliang
When should I plant patty pan squash in Pingliang?
Aim for 27 Apr - 18 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 10-31 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will patty pan squash be ready to harvest in Pingliang?
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.