Snake gourd · Jining, Shandong, China
When to plant snake gourds in Jining
Main outdoor window
13 Apr - 4 May
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
30 March
In Jining, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Jul - 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 Jining
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
2-23 Mar
Four weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Sow direct
13 Apr - 4 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Plant out
13 Apr - 4 May
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Jul - 31 Oct
Snake gourds through the year
Against the frost risk in Jining
Why these dates
Sow two weeks after the last frost onto warm soil. A weight tied to the young fruit is the traditional way of getting a straight one.
Killed at 0C and needs consistently warm nights, so it is a genuinely tropical crop grown outside the tropics only in a hot summer.
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. Snake gourds are timed from 4 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 Jining.
The median frost-free season here is 227 days, against 70 to 90 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Jining
Other vegetables to time
Growing snake gourds in Jining
When should I plant snake gourds in Jining?
Aim for 13 Apr - 4 May in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 22 Apr - 13 May - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will snake gourds be ready to harvest in Jining?
Expect to start picking around 1 Jul - 31 Oct, based on 70 to 90 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will snake gourds tolerate?
Killed at 0C and needs consistently warm nights, so it is a genuinely tropical crop grown outside the tropics only in a hot summer.