Marrow · Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China
When to plant marrows in Shijiazhuang
Main outdoor window
14 Apr - 5 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
31 March
In Shijiazhuang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Aug - 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 Shijiazhuang
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
10-31 Mar
Three weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
14 Apr - 5 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
14 Apr - 5 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Aug - 31 Oct
Marrows through the year
Against the frost risk in Shijiazhuang
Why these dates
Sow two weeks after the last frost. Let two or three fruits swell per plant and remove the rest, since a plant carrying everything ripens nothing well.
Killed at 0C. Cut and bring the fruit under cover before the first autumn frost, which softens the skin and ends any chance of storing it.
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. Marrows are timed from 3 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Shijiazhuang.
The median frost-free season here is 223 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 Shijiazhuang
Other vegetables to time
Growing marrows in Shijiazhuang
When should I plant marrows in Shijiazhuang?
Aim for 14 Apr - 5 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 28 Apr - 19 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will marrows be ready to harvest in Shijiazhuang?
Expect to start picking around 1 Aug - 31 Oct, based on 60 to 80 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will marrows tolerate?
Killed at 0C. Cut and bring the fruit under cover before the first autumn frost, which softens the skin and ends any chance of storing it.