Carrot · Dongtai, Jiangsu, China
When to plant carrots in Dongtai
Main outdoor window
4-25 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
25 March
In Dongtai, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
3-23 May
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 Dongtai
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
27 Jul - 17 Aug
Counting back 94 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
4-25 Mar
Three weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
3-23 May
Carrots through the year
Against the frost risk in Dongtai
Why these dates
Sow from three weeks before last frost. Keep the seedbed continuously damp for the two to three weeks germination takes - this single detail decides most carrot crops.
Seedlings tolerate -6C. Mature roots can be left in the ground under mulch and lifted through winter in all but the coldest zones.
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. Carrots are timed for direct sowing 3 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Dongtai.
The median frost-free season here is 239 days, against 60 to 80 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Dongtai
Other vegetables to time
Growing carrots in Dongtai
When should I plant carrots in Dongtai?
Aim for 4-25 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 17 Mar - 7 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will carrots be ready to harvest in Dongtai?
Expect to start picking around 3-23 May, based on 60 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will carrots tolerate?
Seedlings tolerate -6C. Mature roots can be left in the ground under mulch and lifted through winter in all but the coldest zones.