Tomatillo · Iztapalapa, Mexico City, Mexico
When to plant tomatillos in Iztapalapa
Main outdoor window
23 Feb - 16 Mar
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
9 February
In Iztapalapa, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Aug - 31 Oct
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 Iztapalapa
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.
Start indoors
29 Dec - 19 Jan
Six weeks before your last frost, under cover or on a windowsill.
Plant out
23 Feb - 16 Mar
Two weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Aug - 31 Oct
Tomatillos through the year
Against the frost risk in Iztapalapa
Why these dates
Start indoors six weeks before the last frost and plant out two weeks after it. Fruit is ready when it fills and then splits the papery husk.
Killed at 0C. It sets fruit in heat that makes tomatoes drop their flowers, which is the main reason to grow it in a hot climate.
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. Tomatillos are timed from 6 weeks before that frost for an indoor start, with planting out 2 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Iztapalapa.
The median frost-free season here is 281 days, against 75 to 100 days to maturity for this crop counted from planting out. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Nearby
Tomatillos in places close by
Also in Iztapalapa
Other vegetables to time
Growing tomatillos in Iztapalapa
When should I plant tomatillos in Iztapalapa?
Aim for 23 Feb - 16 Mar in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 14 Mar - 4 Apr - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will tomatillos be ready to harvest in Iztapalapa?
Expect to start picking around 1 Aug - 31 Oct, based on 75 to 100 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will tomatillos tolerate?
Killed at 0C. It sets fruit in heat that makes tomatoes drop their flowers, which is the main reason to grow it in a hot climate.