Stock · Delhi, Delhi, India
When to sow stocks in Delhi
Main outdoor window
23 Dec - 14 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
7 January
In Delhi, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
14 Mar - 13 Apr
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 Delhi
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
11 Nov - 2 Dec
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
23 Dec - 14 Jan
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
14 Mar - 13 Apr
Stocks through the year
Against the frost risk in Delhi
Why these dates
Start indoors eight weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks before it. Stocks need cool nights, below about 15C, for several weeks to initiate flower spikes, so early planting is not optional - a late-planted stock grows into a leafy plant that never blooms.
Hardy to about -8C. In zone 8 and warmer the sensible approach is autumn planting for late-winter flowers, and in hot climates it is a winter crop only.
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. Stocks are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Delhi.
Delhi sits in zone 10b, which is milder than this crop wants, and a winter that never really arrives is its own problem. The dates below still describe the right time of year; the open question is survival rather than timing.
Also in Delhi
Other flowers to time
Growing stocks in Delhi
When should I plant stocks in Delhi?
Aim for 23 Dec - 14 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 24 Dec - 14 Jan - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will stocks be ready to harvest in Delhi?
Expect to start picking around 14 Mar - 13 Apr, based on 80 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will stocks tolerate?
Hardy to about -8C. In zone 8 and warmer the sensible approach is autumn planting for late-winter flowers, and in hot climates it is a winter crop only.