Aubergine · Ürümqi, Xinjiang, China
When to plant aubergines in Ürümqi
Main outdoor window
4-25 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
13 April
In Ürümqi, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
8-23 Jul
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 Ürümqi
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
16 Feb - 9 Mar
Eight weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
4-25 May
Three weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
8-23 Jul
Aubergines through the year
Against the frost risk in Ürümqi
Why these dates
Aubergine roots resent disturbance and cold. Waiting an extra week for warm soil consistently outperforms planting early and hoping.
Killed at 0C and set back badly by anything under 10C. In cool-summer climates this crop belongs in a greenhouse or polytunnel.
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. Aubergines are timed from 8 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 3 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Ürümqi.
The median frost-free season here is 192 days, against 65 to 80 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Ürümqi
Other vegetables to time
Growing aubergines in Ürümqi
When should I plant aubergines in Ürümqi?
Aim for 4-25 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 16 May - 6 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will aubergines be ready to harvest in Ürümqi?
Expect to start picking around 8-23 Jul, based on 65 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will aubergines tolerate?
Killed at 0C and set back badly by anything under 10C. In cool-summer climates this crop belongs in a greenhouse or polytunnel.