Sweet potato · Skardu, Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan
When to plant sweet potatoes in Skardu
Main outdoor window
5-19 Jul
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
14 June
In Skardu, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
3 Oct - 2 Nov
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 Skardu
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 out
5-19 Jul
Three weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
3 Oct - 2 Nov
Sweet potatoes through the year
Against the frost risk in Skardu
Why these dates
Plant slips three weeks after last frost into soil at 18C or above. In cool climates, black plastic mulch is the difference between a crop and a disappointment.
Damaged at 1C - even a near-frost harms the roots. Lift before the first frost, not after it.
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. Sweet potatoes are timed with planting out 3 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Skardu.
The median frost-free season here is 95 days, against 90 to 120 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Skardu
Other vegetables to time
Growing sweet potatoes in Skardu
When should I plant sweet potatoes in Skardu?
Aim for 5-19 Jul in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 17-31 Jul - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will sweet potatoes be ready to harvest in Skardu?
Expect to start picking around 3 Oct - 2 Nov, based on 90 to 120 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
Can you grow sweet potatoes in Skardu?
Your frost-free season is about 95 days. This crop needs roughly 90 days from planting out, so it will not ripen outdoors here without a greenhouse, a cloche or an early cultivar.
How much frost will sweet potatoes tolerate?
Damaged at 1C - even a near-frost harms the roots. Lift before the first frost, not after it.