Peanut · Bengbu, Anhui, China
When to plant peanuts in Bengbu
Main outdoor window
2-23 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
19 March
In Bengbu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
31 Jul - 30 Aug
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 Bengbu
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
19 Feb - 12 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
2-23 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
2-23 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
31 Jul - 30 Aug
Peanuts through the year
Against the frost risk in Bengbu
Why these dates
Sow direct two weeks after the last frost once the soil is genuinely warm, or start indoors and plant out - peanuts resent root disturbance, so use deep pots. Once the flowers fade, the stalks bend down and push into the soil; anything that stops them reaching loose ground stops the crop.
Frost-tender at both ends of the season. The plant is killed at 0C, and because the pods develop underground over a long period, an early autumn frost catches a crop that is not yet finished.
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. Peanuts are timed from 4 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 Bengbu.
The median frost-free season here is 245 days, against 120 to 150 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Bengbu
Other nuts to time
Growing peanuts in Bengbu
When should I plant peanuts in Bengbu?
Aim for 2-23 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 16 Apr - 7 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will peanuts be ready to harvest in Bengbu?
Expect to start picking around 31 Jul - 30 Aug, based on 120 to 150 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will peanuts tolerate?
Frost-tender at both ends of the season. The plant is killed at 0C, and because the pods develop underground over a long period, an early autumn frost catches a crop that is not yet finished.