Spaghetti squash · Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
When to plant spaghetti squash in Harbin
Main outdoor window
12 May - 2 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
28 April
In Harbin, 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 Harbin
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
31 Mar - 21 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
12 May - 2 Jun
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Spaghetti squash through the year
Against the frost risk in Harbin
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 Harbin.
The median frost-free season here is 162 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 Harbin
Other vegetables to time
Growing spaghetti squash in Harbin
When should I plant spaghetti squash in Harbin?
Aim for 12 May - 2 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 19 May - 9 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will spaghetti squash be ready to harvest in Harbin?
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.