Turmeric · Pātan, Bagmati Province, Nepal
When to plant turmeric in Pātan
Main outdoor window
22 Jan - 19 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
8 January
In Pātan, 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 Pātan
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
13 Nov - 11 Dec
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant rhizomes
22 Jan - 19 Feb
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Oct - 31 Dec
Turmeric through the year
Against the frost risk in Pātan
Why these dates
Start rhizomes indoors eight weeks before the last frost in a warm place, and move outside two weeks after it. Lift when the foliage dies down, about nine months from planting.
Killed at 0C. In a short season the rhizomes will be small but perfectly usable, so an early lift is better than a frosted crop.
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. Turmeric are timed from 8 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 Pātan.
Also in Pātan
Other vegetables to time
Growing turmeric in Pātan
When should I plant turmeric in Pātan?
Aim for 22 Jan - 19 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 22 Jan - 19 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will turmeric be ready to harvest in Pātan?
Expect to start picking around 1 Oct - 31 Dec, based on 240 to 300 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will turmeric tolerate?
Killed at 0C. In a short season the rhizomes will be small but perfectly usable, so an early lift is better than a frosted crop.