Cassava · Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
When to plant cassava in Pretoria
Main outdoor window
7 Aug - 4 Sep
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
24 July
In Pretoria, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 May - 28 Sep
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 Pretoria
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 cuttings
7 Aug - 4 Sep
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 May - 28 Sep
Cassava through the year
Against the frost risk in Pretoria
Why these dates
Killed by frost. Genuinely tropical, and not a temperate garden crop under any management.
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. Cassava are timed with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Pretoria.
Hardiness is not the obstacle here. Pretoria is zone 10a, comfortably inside the range this crop is rated for, so an established plant should come through an average winter without protection.
The median frost-free season here is 322 days, against 240 to 330 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Pretoria
Other vegetables to time
Growing cassava in Pretoria
When should I plant cassava in Pretoria?
Aim for 7 Aug - 4 Sep in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 24 Aug - 21 Sep - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will cassava be ready to harvest in Pretoria?
Expect to start picking around 1 May - 28 Sep, based on 240 to 330 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will cassava tolerate?
Killed by frost. Genuinely tropical, and not a temperate garden crop under any management.