Spaghetti squash · Dengzhou, Henan, China
When to plant spaghetti squash in Dengzhou
Main outdoor window
24 Mar - 14 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
10 March
In Dengzhou, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 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 Dengzhou
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
10 Feb - 3 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
24 Mar - 14 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Spaghetti squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Dengzhou
Why these dates
Start indoors four weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks after. Harvest when the skin has turned deep yellow and resists a thumbnail.
Killed at 0C. Harvest before the first frost and cure for a week or two, after which it keeps for several months.
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. Spaghetti squash 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 Dengzhou.
The median frost-free season here is 260 days, against 90 to 110 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Dengzhou
Other vegetables to time
Growing spaghetti squash in Dengzhou
When should I plant spaghetti squash in Dengzhou?
Aim for 24 Mar - 14 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 6-27 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will spaghetti squash be ready to harvest in Dengzhou?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 31 Oct, based on 90 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will spaghetti squash tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Harvest before the first frost and cure for a week or two, after which it keeps for several months.