Lambs lettuce · Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, India
When to plant lambs lettuce in Shimla
Main outdoor window
21 Mar - 18 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
10 January
In Shimla, 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 Shimla
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
3-24 Sep
Counting back 94 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
21 Mar - 18 Apr
Ten weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Nov - 31 Mar
Lambs lettuce through the year
Against the frost risk in Shimla
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 Shimla.
The median frost-free season here is 351 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 Shimla
Other vegetables to time
Growing lambs lettuce in Shimla
When should I plant lambs lettuce in Shimla?
Aim for 21 Mar - 18 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 21 Mar - 18 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lambs lettuce be ready to harvest in Shimla?
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.