Spinach · Putuo, Shanghai, China
When to plant spinach in Putuo
Main outdoor window
20 Jan - 3 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
3 March
In Putuo, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1-11 Mar
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 Putuo
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
19 Sep - 10 Oct
Counting back 64 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
20 Jan - 3 Feb
Six weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
1-11 Mar
Spinach through the year
Against the frost risk in Putuo
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 Putuo.
The median frost-free season here is 286 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 Putuo
Other vegetables to time
Growing spinach in Putuo
When should I plant spinach in Putuo?
Aim for 20 Jan - 3 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 31 Jan - 14 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will spinach be ready to harvest in Putuo?
Expect to start picking around 1-11 Mar, 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.