Butterhead lettuce · Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
When to plant butterhead lettuce in Skardu
Main outdoor window
24 May - 7 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 June
In Skardu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 May - 31 Oct
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 Skardu
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
3-17 May
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
24 May - 7 Jun
Three weeks before your last frost.
Sow direct
31 May - 14 Jun
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
1 May - 31 Oct
Butterhead lettuce through the year
Against the frost risk in Skardu
Why these dates
Sow every ten days from six weeks before the last frost, then stop through the hottest weeks and resume eight weeks before the first autumn frost.
Damaged below about -3C. It is heat rather than cold that ends this crop, with seed germinating badly above 25C.
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. Butterhead lettuce 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 Skardu.
The median frost-free season here is 95 days, against 45 to 60 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Skardu
Other vegetables to time
Growing butterhead lettuce in Skardu
When should I plant butterhead lettuce in Skardu?
Aim for 24 May - 7 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 5-19 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will butterhead lettuce be ready to harvest in Skardu?
Expect to start picking around 1 May - 31 Oct, based on 45 to 60 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will butterhead lettuce tolerate?
Damaged below about -3C. It is heat rather than cold that ends this crop, with seed germinating badly above 25C.