Best time to plant tomato in Alice Springs
Solanum lycopersicum
Sow tomato in Alice Springs in Sep.
Eaten as a vegetable but botanically a berry, the tomato is the fruit of a frost-tender, mostly annual vine in the nightshade family. Thousands of cultivars differ in shape, size, colour and taste, and the savoury umami flavour makes it a key ingredient in sauces, soups and salads.
When to sow in Alice Springs
Alice Springs, NT is in the arid zone. The zone also plants in Mar to Aug, but Alice Springs's frost dates make those months risky for a frost-tender crop.
Broadly matches local guides, with some differences.
Your local conditions can shift any months shown here, so treat them as a guide.
Frost in Alice Springs
Frost usually arrives in Alice Springs around late May and finishes by mid September. In about 1 year in 10 it comes as early as early May or as late as early October, so frost-tender crops are planned around those dates.
From its Bureau of Meteorology station, 1991 to 2020, counting a night at 2°C or lower as a frost. Frost hollows and hillsides can shift these dates by weeks, so ask the growers at your garden too.
On a shared plot: suits a plot
Finishes in a season and stays within its space, so it suits most plots.
Growing details
- How to start
- Raise seedlings, then transplant
- Sowing depth
- 5mm
- Plant spacing
- 45cm
- Row spacing
- 45cm
- Germination
- 4-10 days at 20-30°C
- Time to harvest
- 65 days
- Frost
- Frost tender
- Sun
- Full sun
- Life cycle
- annual
These are typical figures, and varieties differ. Your seed packet takes priority.