Butterhead lettuce · Sonīpat, Haryana, India
When to plant butterhead lettuce in Sonīpat
Main outdoor window
16-30 Dec
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
7 January
In Sonīpat, 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 Sonīpat
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
25 Nov - 9 Dec
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
16-30 Dec
Three weeks before your last frost.
Sow direct
23 Dec - 7 Jan
Two weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
1 May - 31 Oct
Butterhead lettuce through the year
Against the frost risk in Sonīpat
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 Sonīpat.
Also in Sonīpat
Other vegetables to time
Growing butterhead lettuce in Sonīpat
When should I plant butterhead lettuce in Sonīpat?
Aim for 16-30 Dec in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 17-31 Dec - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will butterhead lettuce be ready to harvest in Sonīpat?
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.