Dill · Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa
When to plant dill in Pretoria
Main outdoor window
24 Jul - 3 Aug
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
24 July
In Pretoria, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
2-22 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.
Sow direct
24 Jul - 3 Aug
Around your last frost.
Harvest
2-22 Sep
Dill through the year
Against the frost risk in Pretoria
Why these dates
Sow at the last frost date and again every three weeks. Each plant is short-lived, so succession is the only way to keep leaf coming.
Seedlings handle a light frost. Self-seeds freely and often returns without being asked.
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. Dill are timed for direct sowing 0 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Pretoria.
The median frost-free season here is 322 days, against 40 to 60 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Growing dill in Pretoria
When should I plant dill in Pretoria?
Aim for 24 Jul - 3 Aug in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 10-20 Aug - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will dill be ready to harvest in Pretoria?
Expect to start picking around 2-22 Sep, based on 40 to 60 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will dill tolerate?
Seedlings handle a light frost. Self-seeds freely and often returns without being asked.