Taro · Okazaki, Aichi, Japan
When to plant taro in Okazaki
Main outdoor window
25 Mar - 22 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
11 March
In Okazaki, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Oct - 31 Dec
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 Okazaki
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.
Plant corms
25 Mar - 22 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Oct - 31 Dec
Taro through the year
Against the frost risk in Okazaki
Why these dates
No frost tolerance. Needs 200 or more warm frost-free days, so outside the subtropics it rarely finishes.
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. Taro are timed with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Okazaki.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Okazaki 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 286 days, against 200 to 280 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Okazaki
Other vegetables to time
Growing taro in Okazaki
When should I plant taro in Okazaki?
Aim for 25 Mar - 22 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 6 Apr - 4 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will taro be ready to harvest in Okazaki?
Expect to start picking around 1 Oct - 31 Dec, based on 200 to 280 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will taro tolerate?
No frost tolerance. Needs 200 or more warm frost-free days, so outside the subtropics it rarely finishes.