Marigold · Panipat, Haryana, India
When to sow marigolds in Panipat
Main outdoor window
13-27 Jan
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
6 January
In Panipat, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
4-24 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 Panipat
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
13-27 Jan
One week after your last frost.
Plant out
13-27 Jan
One week after your last frost.
In flower
4-24 Mar
Marigolds through the year
Against the frost risk in Panipat
Why these dates
Six weeks indoors produces flowering plants at transplant time. Direct sowing works but flowers three weeks later.
Killed by frost at both ends of the season, with no tolerance at any growth stage.
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. Marigolds are timed from 6 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 1 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Panipat.
The median frost-free season here is 356 days, against 50 to 70 days to first flower for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Panipat
Other flowers to time
Growing marigolds in Panipat
When should I plant marigolds in Panipat?
Aim for 13-27 Jan in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 13-27 Jan - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will marigolds be ready to harvest in Panipat?
Expect to start picking around 4-24 Mar, based on 50 to 70 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will marigolds tolerate?
Killed by frost at both ends of the season, with no tolerance at any growth stage.