Caraway · Zheleznodorozhnyy, Moscow Oblast, Russia
When to plant caraway in Zheleznodorozhnyy
Main outdoor window
26 Apr - 17 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
3 May
In Zheleznodorozhnyy, 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 Zheleznodorozhnyy
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
26 Apr - 17 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 12 Apr, which is too cold for it to start.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Aug
Caraway through the year
Against the frost risk in Zheleznodorozhnyy
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 Zheleznodorozhnyy.
With one correction, which is the note at the top of the page: the offset alone would put this crop in soil that is still too cold for it. Where the frost date and the soil temperature disagree, the dates here follow the soil, because a seed in cold ground either rots or waits, and a sowing made a fortnight later usually overtakes it.
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 Zheleznodorozhnyy 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 Zheleznodorozhnyy
When should I plant caraway in Zheleznodorozhnyy?
Aim for 26 Apr - 17 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 27 Apr - 18 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
Can I plant caraway earlier in Zheleznodorozhnyy?
Frost is finished by about 12 Apr, but the soil is still too cold. Caraway will not start until it reaches 8°C (46.4°F), and here that is around 26 Apr. Going in earlier usually means seed that rots or transplants that sit and sulk, and a later sowing catches them up.
When will caraway be ready to harvest in Zheleznodorozhnyy?
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.