Cornflower · Balakovo, Saratov Oblast, Russia
When to sow cornflowers in Balakovo
Main outdoor window
12 Apr - 10 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
27 April
In Balakovo, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
16 Jun - 6 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 Balakovo
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
16 Mar - 13 Apr
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
12 Apr - 10 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 6 Apr, which is too cold for it to start.
Plant out
13 Apr - 11 May
Two weeks before your last frost.
In flower
16 Jun - 6 Jul
Cornflowers through the year
Against the frost risk in Balakovo
Why these dates
Sow direct three weeks before the last frost, thinly and where it is to flower - it resents transplanting once the taproot is down. Deadhead relentlessly, because a plant allowed to set seed stops flowering within a fortnight. An autumn sowing gives much taller, sturdier plants.
Hardy to about -10C as a young plant, which is what makes autumn sowing possible in zone 7 and milder. Dislikes humid heat and finishes early in a hot summer.
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. Cornflowers are timed from 6 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Balakovo.
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.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Balakovo is zone 4b, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
The median frost-free season here is 166 days, against 65 to 85 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Balakovo
Other flowers to time
Growing cornflowers in Balakovo
When should I plant cornflowers in Balakovo?
Aim for 12 Apr - 10 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 15 Apr - 13 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
Can I plant cornflowers earlier in Balakovo?
Frost is finished by about 6 Apr, but the soil is still too cold. Cornflowers will not start until it reaches 7°C (44.6°F), and here that is around 12 Apr. Going in earlier usually means seed that rots or transplants that sit and sulk, and a later sowing catches them up.
When will cornflowers be ready to harvest in Balakovo?
Expect to start picking around 16 Jun - 6 Jul, based on 65 to 85 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will cornflowers tolerate?
Hardy to about -10C as a young plant, which is what makes autumn sowing possible in zone 7 and milder. Dislikes humid heat and finishes early in a hot summer.