Potato · Assiut, Asyut, Egypt
When to plant potatoes in Assiut
Main outdoor window
3-17 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
17 January
In Assiut, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
14 Mar - 3 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 Assiut
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.
Sow direct
3-17 Jan
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
14 Mar - 3 May
Potatoes through the year
Against the frost risk in Assiut
Why these dates
Plant two weeks before last frost so shoots emerge around the frost date. Earthing up buries vulnerable shoots and buys you a week of frost protection at a time.
Emerged foliage is blackened at -2C, though the plant usually regrows from the tuber with a yield penalty. Frost after emergence is the classic potato setback.
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. Potatoes are timed for direct sowing 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Assiut.
Also in Assiut
Other vegetables to time
Growing potatoes in Assiut
When should I plant potatoes in Assiut?
Aim for 3-17 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 14-28 Jan - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will potatoes be ready to harvest in Assiut?
Expect to start picking around 14 Mar - 3 May, based on 70 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will potatoes tolerate?
Emerged foliage is blackened at -2C, though the plant usually regrows from the tuber with a yield penalty. Frost after emergence is the classic potato setback.