Caraway · Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
When to plant caraway in Shijiazhuang
Main outdoor window
10-31 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
31 March
In Shijiazhuang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jul - 31 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 Shijiazhuang
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
10-31 Mar
Three weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Aug
Caraway through the year
Against the frost risk in Shijiazhuang
Why these dates
Sow direct three weeks before the last frost, or in late summer for seed the following year. Do not transplant - the taproot resents it and the plant bolts.
Overwinters reliably to about -20C, which it must do to flower at all.
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. Caraway are timed for direct sowing 3 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Shijiazhuang.
This is a two-season crop, so the dates above describe a sowing in one year and a harvest in the next. The plant spends the winter in the ground as a small rosette, which is why the frost-free season in Shijiazhuang does not limit it the way it would limit a tomato: it is not trying to finish before the cold arrives, it is trying to be well enough rooted to sit through it. Sowing too late is the real risk, because a plant that goes into winter undersized often fails to flower at all the following year.
Growing caraway in Shijiazhuang
When should I plant caraway in Shijiazhuang?
Aim for 10-31 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 24 Mar - 14 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will caraway be ready to harvest in Shijiazhuang?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jul - 31 Aug, based on 240 to 300 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will caraway tolerate?
Overwinters reliably to about -20C, which it must do to flower at all.