Last and first frost dates in Dortmund

When is the last frost in Dortmund?

The last frost in Dortmund usually comes around 17 April: that is the median of 2016–2025, so in about half of those years the last night at or below 0 °C came later. Hardy crops start before it and frost-tender ones only after it: in the table below arugula can go into open ground from 27 March, while corn waits until 24 April. The first autumn frost follows around 16 November, about 213 days later: harvest or cover frost-tender crops before then.

When to sow and plant

Planting out: a week after the last frost once the soil is warm enough for the crop; frost-hardy crops three weeks before it; an unheated greenhouse three weeks earlier. Seedlings are sown so they are ready on that day. Each window starts on the Greenly calendar date and ends on the last day that still leaves the crop’s days to harvest (from its card) before the average first autumn frost, plus six weeks of picking for crops harvested over weeks (tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers, courgettes, pumpkins, watermelons, beans) — our rule; earlier in the window is safer.

When the soil warms up in Dortmund

The day the top 7 cm of soil first averages each temperature over a week, median of 2016–2025 (ERA5 via Open-Meteo). The soil reaches 10 °C 6 days before the last spring frost and 15 °C 29 days after it.

Frost dates near Dortmund

Of the nearest cities on our list, the last spring frost ends earliest in Duisburg (5 April) and latest in Hagen (26 April).

Seeds, seedlings and markets in Dortmund

Within 15 km of Dortmund OpenStreetMap lists 24 garden centres, 2 farm-supply shops, 3 plant nurseries, 21 markets and 35 farm shops (collected 28 October 2026). The nearest garden centre to the city centre is Gärtnerei Neuhoff, 5 km away.

• Gärtnerei Neuhoff — garden centre
  Mon–Fri 09:30–13:00, 14:00–18:00; Sat 09:00–14:00 · 5 km · gaertnerei-neuhoff.de
• Horn 21 — farm supply
  Hangeneystraße 90, 44379 Dortmund · 8 km · horn21.de
• Ronsiek — plant nursery
  Pferdebachstraße 103a, 58454 Witten · 11 km · ronsiek.ruhr
• Hörder Stiftsmarkt — market
  Mon closed; Tue, Fri 07:00–13:00; public holidays closed · 3 km
• Hof Kuse — farm shop
  Baukamp 68, 44329 Dortmund · Sat 10:00–16:00 · 6 km · hof-kuse.de
• Blumen Dresing — garden centre
  Wittbräucker Straße 463, 44267 Dortmund · 7 km · blumen-dresing.de

• Where to buy seeds and seedlings in Dortmund
• Selling your own harvest in Germany

Places: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Weather in Dortmund by month

Average weather in Dortmund over 2016–2025: the warmest month is August. Months that average 20 °C or more by day: June–September (20.2–23.8 °C). No month averages below 0 °C at night; the coldest nights, in January, average 0.7 °C. About 913 mm of rain falls in a year, on 165 days; January is the wettest month (96 mm) and April the driest (64 mm).

Average of the daily highs and lows, rain per month and days with at least 1 mm (ERA5 via Open-Meteo, the same grid cell as the frost dates).

Planted in autumn

From a month before the first autumn frost, so the roots grow before winter, to the late-planting limit on each crop’s page (about two weeks before the ground freezes, by ten years of weather).