Sage · Xintai, Shandong, China
When to plant sage in Xintai
Main outdoor window
18 Apr - 16 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
4 April
In Xintai, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 May - 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 Xintai
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
7 Feb - 7 Mar
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
18 Apr - 16 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 May - 31 Oct
Sage through the year
Against the frost risk in Xintai
Why these dates
Start indoors 8 weeks before the last frost or plant out after it. Never cut into bare old wood - unlike most shrubs, sage frequently fails to reshoot from it.
Hardy to around -20C. The leaves look wretched after a hard winter and the plant recovers regardless.
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. Sage are timed from 8 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 Xintai.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Xintai is zone 7a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 1, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Growing sage in Xintai
When should I plant sage in Xintai?
Aim for 18 Apr - 16 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 30 Apr - 28 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will sage be ready to harvest in Xintai?
Expect to start picking around 1 May - 31 Oct, based on 75 to 90 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will sage tolerate?
Hardy to around -20C. The leaves look wretched after a hard winter and the plant recovers regardless.