Stock · El Achir, Bordj Bou Arréridj, Algeria
When to sow stocks in El Achir
Main outdoor window
2-23 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
16 March
In El Achir, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
21 May - 20 Jun
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 El Achir
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
19 Jan - 9 Feb
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
2-23 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
21 May - 20 Jun
Stocks through the year
Against the frost risk in El Achir
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 El Achir.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. El Achir is zone 9b, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
The median frost-free season here is 265 days, against 80 to 110 days to first flower for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in El Achir
Other flowers to time
Growing stocks in El Achir
When should I plant stocks in El Achir?
Aim for 2-23 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 19 Mar - 9 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will stocks be ready to harvest in El Achir?
Expect to start picking around 21 May - 20 Jun, 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.