Broad bean · Wuhan, Hubei, China
When to plant broad beans in Wuhan
Main outdoor window
27 Dec - 17 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
21 February
In Wuhan, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
17 Mar - 6 Apr
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 Wuhan
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 for overwintering
25 Jul - 15 Aug
Counting back 114 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
27 Dec - 17 Jan
Eight weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
17 Mar - 6 Apr
Broad beans through the year
Against the frost risk in Wuhan
Why these dates
Sow in autumn in zones 7 and warmer for an early summer crop, or eight weeks before last frost in colder regions. Autumn sowings also dodge the worst of blackfly.
Survives -10C once established, and light snow cover helps rather than harms. Very young seedlings going into deep cold are the only real risk.
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. Broad beans are timed for direct sowing 8 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Wuhan.
The median frost-free season here is 289 days, against 80 to 100 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Wuhan
Other vegetables to time
Growing broad beans in Wuhan
When should I plant broad beans in Wuhan?
Aim for 27 Dec - 17 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 13 Jan - 3 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will broad beans be ready to harvest in Wuhan?
Expect to start picking around 17 Mar - 6 Apr, based on 80 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will broad beans tolerate?
Survives -10C once established, and light snow cover helps rather than harms. Very young seedlings going into deep cold are the only real risk.