Spring wheat · Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany
When to plant spring wheat in Frankfurt am Main
Main outdoor window
27 Mar - 17 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
17 April
In Frankfurt am Main, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
5 Jul - 4 Aug
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 Frankfurt am Main
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.
Sow direct
27 Mar - 17 Apr
Three weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
5 Jul - 4 Aug
Spring wheat through the year
Against the frost risk in Frankfurt am Main
Why these dates
Sow as early as the ground can be worked, roughly three weeks before the last frost. The seedlings tolerate frost easily; what they cannot tolerate is heat during grain fill, so an early sowing is a hedge against a hot midsummer.
Seedlings survive to about -6C. The vulnerable stage is flowering, where a frost causes blank heads that look normal until threshing.
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. Spring wheat are timed for direct sowing 3 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Frankfurt am Main.
The median frost-free season here is 204 days, against 100 to 130 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Growing spring wheat in Frankfurt am Main
When should I plant spring wheat in Frankfurt am Main?
Aim for 27 Mar - 17 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 5-26 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will spring wheat be ready to harvest in Frankfurt am Main?
Expect to start picking around 5 Jul - 4 Aug, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will spring wheat tolerate?
Seedlings survive to about -6C. The vulnerable stage is flowering, where a frost causes blank heads that look normal until threshing.