Chickpea · Jiaxing, Zhejiang, China
When to plant chickpeas in Jiaxing
Main outdoor window
17 Feb - 10 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
3 March
In Jiaxing, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
28 May - 27 Jun
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 Jiaxing
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 autumn
26 Jun - 17 Jul
Counting back 144 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
17 Feb - 10 Mar
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
28 May - 27 Jun
Chickpeas through the year
Against the frost risk in Jiaxing
Why these dates
Sow two weeks before the last frost in a climate with dry summers. Where late summer is wet, sow as early as possible so the pods dry before the rain arrives.
Seedlings tolerate about -4C. Flowers are damaged at -1C, so a late frost during bloom reduces the pod set without killing the plant.
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. Chickpeas are timed for direct sowing 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Jiaxing.
The median frost-free season here is 280 days, against 100 to 130 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Jiaxing
Other grains to time
Growing chickpeas in Jiaxing
When should I plant chickpeas in Jiaxing?
Aim for 17 Feb - 10 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 28 Feb - 21 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will chickpeas be ready to harvest in Jiaxing?
Expect to start picking around 28 May - 27 Jun, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will chickpeas tolerate?
Seedlings tolerate about -4C. Flowers are damaged at -1C, so a late frost during bloom reduces the pod set without killing the plant.