Pumpkin · Luoyang, Henan, China
When to plant pumpkins in Luoyang
Main outdoor window
6-20 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
23 March
In Luoyang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
5 Jul - 4 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 Luoyang
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
2-16 Mar
Three weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
6-20 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
6-20 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
5 Jul - 4 Aug
Pumpkins through the year
Against the frost risk in Luoyang
Why these dates
If your frost-free season is shorter than 110 days, start indoors and choose a smaller cultivar. Giant pumpkins are a long-season crop, not a beginner one.
Foliage dies at the first frost, but mature fruit tolerates a light touch. Harvest before a hard frost or the flesh will not store.
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. Pumpkins 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 Luoyang.
The median frost-free season here is 239 days, against 90 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 Luoyang
Other vegetables to time
Growing pumpkins in Luoyang
When should I plant pumpkins in Luoyang?
Aim for 6-20 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 17 Apr - 1 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pumpkins be ready to harvest in Luoyang?
Expect to start picking around 5 Jul - 4 Aug, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will pumpkins tolerate?
Foliage dies at the first frost, but mature fruit tolerates a light touch. Harvest before a hard frost or the flesh will not store.