Oats · New York City, New York, United States
When to plant oats in New York City
Main outdoor window
1-22 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
29 March
In New York City, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
9 Jun - 9 Jul
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 New York City
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 for autumn
20 Jun - 11 Jul
Counting back 144 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
1-22 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
9 Jun - 9 Jul
Oats through the year
Against the frost risk in New York City
Why these dates
Sow very early in spring for grain. Sown in late summer instead, oats make excellent ground cover that winter-kills cleanly and leaves an easy seedbed in spring.
Seedlings take -7C. Oats sown as a cover crop are deliberately killed by frost around -8C, which is the point - the residue mulches the bed without needing removal.
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. Oats are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for New York City.
The median frost-free season here is 249 days, against 100 to 130 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in New York City
Other grains to time
Growing oats in New York City
When should I plant oats in New York City?
Aim for 1-22 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 11 Mar - 1 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will oats be ready to harvest in New York City?
Expect to start picking around 9 Jun - 9 Jul, based on 100 to 130 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will oats tolerate?
Seedlings take -7C. Oats sown as a cover crop are deliberately killed by frost around -8C, which is the point - the residue mulches the bed without needing removal.