Chinese artichoke · Elektrostal’, Moscow Oblast, Russia
When to plant chinese artichokes in Elektrostal’
Main outdoor window
6-27 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
4 May
In Elektrostal’, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Oct - 31 Dec
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 Elektrostal’
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.
Plant tubers
6-27 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 4 May, which is too cold for it to start.
Harvest
1 Oct - 31 Dec
Chinese artichokes through the year
Against the frost risk in Elektrostal’
Why these dates
Plant tubers around the last frost date and leave undisturbed all season. Lift after the top growth has died back in late autumn, and expect to miss a few.
Tubers are hardy to about -8C in the ground and are best left there and dug as needed, since they shrivel quickly once lifted.
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. Chinese artichokes are timed with planting out 0 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Elektrostal’.
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.
The median frost-free season here is 156 days, against 180 to 210 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Nearby
Chinese artichokes in places close by
Also in Elektrostal’
Other vegetables to time
Growing chinese artichokes in Elektrostal’
When should I plant chinese artichokes in Elektrostal’?
Aim for 6-27 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 May - 11 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
Can I plant chinese artichokes earlier in Elektrostal’?
Frost is finished by about 4 May, but the soil is still too cold. Chinese artichokes will not start until it reaches 10°C (50°F), and here that is around 6 May. Going in earlier usually means seed that rots or transplants that sit and sulk, and a later sowing catches them up.
When will chinese artichokes be ready to harvest in Elektrostal’?
Expect to start picking around 1 Oct - 31 Dec, based on 180 to 210 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will chinese artichokes tolerate?
Tubers are hardy to about -8C in the ground and are best left there and dug as needed, since they shrivel quickly once lifted.