Chilli pepper · Wuhu, Anhui, China
When to plant chilli peppers in Wuhu
Main outdoor window
23 Mar - 13 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
9 March
In Wuhu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jun - 1 Jul
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 Wuhu
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.
Start indoors
5-26 Jan
Nine weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
23 Mar - 13 Apr
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jun - 1 Jul
Chilli peppers through the year
Against the frost risk in Wuhu
Why these dates
Hotter species such as habanero need 10 to 12 weeks indoors, not nine. If your frost-free season is under 120 days, treat a chilli as a container plant you can move.
Identical frost sensitivity to sweet peppers. Because the fruit ripens late, the first autumn frost usually decides your final yield more than the last spring one does.
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. Chilli peppers are timed from 9 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Wuhu.
The median frost-free season here is 263 days, against 70 to 100 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Wuhu
Other vegetables to time
Growing chilli peppers in Wuhu
When should I plant chilli peppers in Wuhu?
Aim for 23 Mar - 13 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 5-26 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will chilli peppers be ready to harvest in Wuhu?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jun - 1 Jul, based on 70 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will chilli peppers tolerate?
Identical frost sensitivity to sweet peppers. Because the fruit ripens late, the first autumn frost usually decides your final yield more than the last spring one does.