Spinach · Dongling, Liaoning, China
When to plant spinach in Dongling
Main outdoor window
14-28 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
25 April
In Dongling, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
23 Apr - 3 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 Dongling
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 overwintering
20 Jul - 10 Aug
Counting back 64 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
14-28 Mar
Six weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
23 Apr - 3 May
Spinach through the year
Against the frost risk in Dongling
Why these dates
Spring sowings must go in early - six weeks before last frost - to crop before bolting. The autumn sowing, six to eight weeks before first frost, is usually far more productive.
Overwinters under snow in zone 5 and regrows in spring. One of the few crops that genuinely prefers frost.
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. Spinach are timed for direct sowing 6 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Dongling.
The median frost-free season here is 171 days, against 40 to 50 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Dongling
Other vegetables to time
Growing spinach in Dongling
When should I plant spinach in Dongling?
Aim for 14-28 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 19 Mar - 2 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will spinach be ready to harvest in Dongling?
Expect to start picking around 23 Apr - 3 May, based on 40 to 50 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will spinach tolerate?
Overwinters under snow in zone 5 and regrows in spring. One of the few crops that genuinely prefers frost.