Lentil · Linfen, Shanxi, China
When to plant lentils in Linfen
Main outdoor window
12 Mar - 2 Apr
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
9 April
In Linfen, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
31 May - 30 Jun
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 Linfen
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 autumn
5-26 Jun
Counting back 124 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
12 Mar - 2 Apr
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
31 May - 30 Jun
Lentils through the year
Against the frost risk in Linfen
Why these dates
Sow four weeks before the last frost. Lentils are short and easily flattened by rain, so a windless site and a firm seedbed both help at harvest.
Seedlings survive to about -6C, which is why lentils are sown far earlier than most pulses.
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. Lentils are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Linfen.
The median frost-free season here is 203 days, against 80 to 110 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Linfen
Other grains to time
Growing lentils in Linfen
When should I plant lentils in Linfen?
Aim for 12 Mar - 2 Apr in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 27 Mar - 17 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will lentils be ready to harvest in Linfen?
Expect to start picking around 31 May - 30 Jun, based on 80 to 110 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will lentils tolerate?
Seedlings survive to about -6C, which is why lentils are sown far earlier than most pulses.