Best time to plant tomatillo in Port Macquarie
Physalis philadelphica
Also called husk tomato, Mexican husk tomato, Mexican green tomato, miltomate, Mexican groundcherry
Sow tomatillo in Port Macquarie in Oct.
Tomatillos are small round fruit, green or green-purple, from a nightshade plant first grown in Mexico before Columbus. A mainstay of Mexican cooking, they can be used raw or cooked, most famously in salsa verde. The plant is perennial but usually treated as a yearly crop.
When to sow in Port Macquarie
Port Macquarie, NSW is in the subtropical zone. The zone also plants in Aug to Sep, but Port Macquarie's frost dates make those months risky for a frost-tender crop.
Not yet checked against a local guide.
Your local conditions can shift any months shown here, so treat them as a guide.
Frost in Port Macquarie
Frost usually arrives in Port Macquarie around mid June and finishes by mid September. In about 1 year in 10 it comes as early as late 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
- 4mm
- Plant spacing
- 90cm
- Row spacing
- 60cm
- Height
- 100cm
- Germination
- 15-20 days at 22-28°C
- Time to harvest
- 70-90 days
- Frost
- Frost tender
- Sun
- Full sun
- Life cycle
- annual
These are typical figures, and varieties differ. Your seed packet takes priority.