Orach · Kaluga, Kaluga Oblast, Russia
When to plant orach in Kaluga
Main outdoor window
19 Apr - 10 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
1 May
In Kaluga, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jun - 30 Sep
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 Kaluga
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
19 Apr - 10 May
Held back until the soil is warm enough for this crop. The frost date on its own would say 17 Apr, which is too cold for it to start.
Harvest
1 Jun - 30 Sep
Orach through the year
Against the frost risk in Kaluga
Why these dates
Sow two weeks before the last frost and pinch the tips to keep it leafy. Left alone it reaches head height and goes to seed by midsummer.
Tolerates about -5C. Young plants take a spring frost without checking, which is why it can go in earlier than true spinach.
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. Orach are timed for direct sowing 2 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Kaluga.
With one correction, which is the note at the top of the page: the offset alone would put this crop in soil that is still too cold for it. Where the frost date and the soil temperature disagree, the dates here follow the soil, because a seed in cold ground either rots or waits, and a sowing made a fortnight later usually overtakes it.
The median frost-free season here is 159 days, against 40 to 60 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Kaluga
Other vegetables to time
Growing orach in Kaluga
When should I plant orach in Kaluga?
Aim for 19 Apr - 10 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 2-23 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
Can I plant orach earlier in Kaluga?
Frost is finished by about 17 Apr, but the soil is still too cold. Orach will not start until it reaches 7°C (44.6°F), and here that is around 19 Apr. Going in earlier usually means seed that rots or transplants that sit and sulk, and a later sowing catches them up.
When will orach be ready to harvest in Kaluga?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jun - 30 Sep, based on 40 to 60 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will orach tolerate?
Tolerates about -5C. Young plants take a spring frost without checking, which is why it can go in earlier than true spinach.