Pistachio · Zhu Cheng City, Shandong, China
When to plant pistachios in Zhu Cheng City
Main outdoor window
12 Nov - 17 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
31 March
In Zhu Cheng City, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Sep - 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 Zhu Cheng 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.
Plant the tree
12 Nov - 17 Mar
Any time the plant is dormant and the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged: after leaf fall in autumn, or at the end of winter before growth restarts.
Harvest
1 Sep - 31 Oct
Pistachios through the year
Against the frost risk in Zhu Cheng City
Why these dates
Tolerates hard winter cold, but wet is fatal - pistachio needs the winter chill without the winter rain, which is why it succeeds in continental interiors and sulks in maritime climates.
Pistachios are planted once and then left in place, so there is no sowing offset to resolve. What matters in Zhu Cheng City is the shape of the year: this crop is dormant through the winter and is planted while it sleeps, any time between leaf fall in autumn and the restart of growth in spring, so long as the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. That is why the window below spans the cold months rather than sitting in the middle of the growing season.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Zhu Cheng City is zone 7b, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
Do not expect a crop in the first year. A plant set out now should give its first worthwhile pick around year 6, and will then produce every year after that, which is what makes the planting decision worth getting right the first time.
Also in Zhu Cheng City
Other nuts to time
Growing pistachios in Zhu Cheng City
When should I plant pistachios in Zhu Cheng City?
Aim for 12 Nov - 17 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 1 Nov - 28 Mar - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will pistachios be ready to harvest in Zhu Cheng City?
Expect to start picking around 1 Sep - 31 Oct, based on 180 to 220 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will pistachios tolerate?
Tolerates hard winter cold, but wet is fatal - pistachio needs the winter chill without the winter rain, which is why it succeeds in continental interiors and sulks in maritime climates.