Lambs lettuce · Putuo, Shanghai, China
When to plant lambs lettuce in Putuo
Main outdoor window
12 May - 9 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
3 March
In Putuo, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Nov - 31 Mar
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 Putuo
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
20 Aug - 10 Sep
Counting back 94 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
12 May - 9 Jun
Ten weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Nov - 31 Mar
Lambs lettuce through the year
Against the frost risk in Putuo
Why these dates
Sow from about ten weeks after midsummer into ground vacated by an earlier crop. It germinates in cool soil, so a late sowing is a feature rather than a compromise.
Survives -15C without protection. Frost does not damage the leaf at all, which is why it is a winter crop everywhere it is grown.
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. Lambs lettuce are timed for direct sowing 10 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Putuo.
The median frost-free season here is 286 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 Putuo
Other vegetables to time
Growing lambs lettuce in Putuo
When should I plant lambs lettuce in Putuo?
Aim for 12 May - 9 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 23 May - 20 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lambs lettuce be ready to harvest in Putuo?
Expect to start picking around 1 Nov - 31 Mar, based on 60 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will lambs lettuce tolerate?
Survives -15C without protection. Frost does not damage the leaf at all, which is why it is a winter crop everywhere it is grown.