Turnip · Shanghai, Shanghai, China
When to plant turnips in Shanghai
Main outdoor window
2-16 Feb
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
2 March
In Shanghai, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
14-29 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 Shanghai
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 autumn
14 Sep - 5 Oct
Counting back 69 days from your first frost so the crop matures in time.
Sow direct
2-16 Feb
Four weeks before your last frost.
Harvest
14-29 Mar
Turnips through the year
Against the frost risk in Shanghai
Why these dates
Autumn crops sown eight to ten weeks before first frost are sweeter and less prone to woodiness than anything grown into summer heat.
Tolerates -8C. Roots hold in the ground well past the first frosts.
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. Turnips are timed for direct sowing 4 weeks before it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Shanghai.
The median frost-free season here is 287 days, against 40 to 55 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Shanghai
Other vegetables to time
Growing turnips in Shanghai
When should I plant turnips in Shanghai?
Aim for 2-16 Feb in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 14-28 Feb - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will turnips be ready to harvest in Shanghai?
Expect to start picking around 14-29 Mar, based on 40 to 55 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will turnips tolerate?
Tolerates -8C. Roots hold in the ground well past the first frosts.