Mint · Xinyi, Jiangsu, China
When to plant mint in Xinyi
Main outdoor window
25 Feb - 18 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
25 March
In Xinyi, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
26 Apr - 26 May
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 Xinyi
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 direct
25 Feb - 18 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
26 Apr - 26 May
Mint through the year
Against the frost risk in Xinyi
Why these dates
Establish from a division rather than seed - seed-grown mint is variable and often poorly flavoured. Cut back hard midsummer for fresh growth.
Dies back to the root in winter and returns reliably from -25C. Frost is irrelevant to an established plant.
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. Mint are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Xinyi.
Growing mint in Xinyi
When should I plant mint in Xinyi?
Aim for 25 Feb - 18 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 10-31 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will mint be ready to harvest in Xinyi?
Expect to start picking around 26 Apr - 26 May, based on 60 to 90 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will mint tolerate?
Dies back to the root in winter and returns reliably from -25C. Frost is irrelevant to an established plant.