Potato · Qingyuan, Guangdong, China
When to plant potatoes in Qingyuan
Main outdoor window
7-21 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
21 January
In Qingyuan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
18 Mar - 7 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 Qingyuan
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
7-21 Jan
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
18 Mar - 7 May
Potatoes through the year
Against the frost risk in Qingyuan
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 Qingyuan.
The median frost-free season here is 335 days, against 70 to 120 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Qingyuan
Other vegetables to time
Growing potatoes in Qingyuan
When should I plant potatoes in Qingyuan?
Aim for 7-21 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 25 Jan - 8 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will potatoes be ready to harvest in Qingyuan?
Expect to start picking around 18 Mar - 7 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.