Gardening in Chile: climate, frost dates and crops by region

We worked out the season of 23 cities of Chile from ten years of weather: the frost-free season lasts from 42 days in Coyhaique to 340 days in Copiapó. The last spring frost comes first in Copiapó (around 19 July) and last in Coyhaique (around 3 December). 5 of the cities had no frost at all.

Climate zones of Chile

By the days between the last spring frost and the first autumn frost.

Zone	Cities	Frost-free days	Last spring frost	First autumn frost
270 frost-free days or more	Copiapó, Los Andes, Santiago, Rancagua, Curicó, Talca, Chillán, Concepción, Los Ángeles, Villarrica, Valdivia, Puerto Montt	272 – 340	19 July – 12 September	1 June – 24 June
210–269 frost-free days	Temuco, Osorno	260	5 September – 15 September	23 May – 2 June
150–209 frost-free days	Punta Arenas	161	28 October	7 April
Short season: under 150 frost-free days	Coyhaique	42	3 December	14 January
Frost without a regular season	Calama, Valparaíso	—	6 August – 10 August	—
No frost in ten years	Arica, Iquique, Antofagasta, La Serena, Ovalle	—	—	—

How the regions of Chile differ

Splitting the cities in two — north (Arica, Iquique, Calama and 8 more) and south (Talca, Chillán, Concepción and 8 more): the last spring frost comes about 21 days later in the south; the frost-free season is about 306 days in the north and 280 days in the south; the warmest month averages 25.3 °C by day in the north and 23.3 °C in the south; the north gets about 99 mm of rain a year and the south about 1,245 mm.

The gap between the warmest month’s days and the coldest month’s nights is widest in Talca (27.2 °C) and smallest in Iquique (11.9 °C): the smaller it is, the milder both winter and summer. Villarrica is the wettest of these cities with 2,001 mm a year, Iquique the driest with 12 mm. The hottest summer days are in Curicó (30.6 °C on average in the warmest month), the coolest in Punta Arenas (13.1 °C). In 2 of the 23 cities at least one month averages below 0 °C at night; the longest such winter is in Coyhaique (May–October).

Which crops suit which part of Chile

Season long enough: the days from planting to the first autumn frost cover the days to the first harvest on the plant card. 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.

Crop	Planting out or sowing	Season long enough	Tight or too short
Tomato	9 August (Copiapó) – 3 March (Copiapó)	17 of 18: Calama, Copiapó, Los Andes, Valparaíso and 13 more	1 of 18: Coyhaique
Cucumber	8 September (Copiapó) – 8 April (Copiapó)	17 of 18: Calama, Copiapó, Los Andes, Valparaíso and 13 more	1 of 18: Coyhaique
Bell Pepper, Eggplant	8 September (Copiapó) – 3 March (Copiapó)	17 of 18: Calama, Copiapó, Los Andes, Valparaíso and 13 more	1 of 18: Coyhaique
Zucchini	8 September (Copiapó) – 6 April (Copiapó)	17 of 18: Calama, Copiapó, Los Andes, Valparaíso and 13 more	1 of 18: Coyhaique
Pumpkin	8 September (Copiapó) – 27 February (Copiapó)	17 of 18: Calama, Copiapó, Los Andes, Valparaíso and 13 more	1 of 18: Coyhaique
Watermelon	8 September (Copiapó) – 14 March (Copiapó)	17 of 18: Calama, Copiapó, Los Andes, Valparaíso and 13 more	1 of 18: Coyhaique
Peas	28 June (Copiapó) – 10 April (Copiapó)	17 of 18: Calama, Copiapó, Los Andes, Valparaíso and 13 more	1 of 18: Coyhaique
Garlic	Autumn planting: 15 December (Coyhaique) – end of June (Los Andes)	—	—
Tulip, Daffodil, Crocus, Hyacinth	Autumn planting: 15 December (Coyhaique) – end of June (Punta Arenas)	—	—

Cities without a spring frost: months that suit each crop

Months whose average day is not above the highest temperature on the plant card and whose average night is not below its lowest.

City	Tomato	Cucumber	Bell Pepper	Eggplant	Watermelon
Arica	March, April and December, January	January–March	November–May	none	January–March
Iquique	November–April	January–March	November–May	February	January–March
Antofagasta	December–March	January, February	December–April	none	January, February
La Serena	none	none	January, February	none	none
Ovalle	none	none	none	none	none

Cities of Chile: weather in numbers

City	Frost-free days	Warmest month, day	Coldest month, night	Rain a year	Driest month	Places to buy
Arica	no frost	February, 27.5 °C	August, 12.9 °C	33 mm	March	11
Iquique	no frost	February, 25.3 °C	August, 13.4 °C	12 mm	March	5
Calama	—	December, 25 °C	August, 6.6 °C	23 mm	September	4
Antofagasta	no frost	February, 24.7 °C	July, 12.2 °C	15 mm	February	5
Copiapó	340	February, 23.7 °C	June, 8.1 °C	26 mm	February	—
La Serena	no frost	February, 23.9 °C	July, 8.4 °C	101 mm	January	13
Ovalle	no frost	February, 28.3 °C	July, 6.6 °C	99 mm	January	—
Los Andes	285	February, 25.9 °C	June, 4.7 °C	427 mm	March	—
Valparaíso	—	January, 24.2 °C	July, 5.5 °C	348 mm	February	15
Santiago	313	January, 30.5 °C	July, 5.5 °C	484 mm	March	44
Rancagua	298	January, 29.6 °C	July, 4.3 °C	645 mm	December	14
Curicó	286	January, 30.6 °C	July, 3.5 °C	715 mm	December	10
Talca	296	January, 30.5 °C	July, 3.3 °C	636 mm	February	12
Chillán	286	January, 29.7 °C	July, 4.1 °C	1,007 mm	February	4
Concepción	329	February, 23.3 °C	July, 5.6 °C	973 mm	February	11
Los Ángeles	280	February, 28.1 °C	July, 4.1 °C	1,109 mm	February	6
Temuco	260	February, 25 °C	July, 3.4 °C	1,245 mm	February	34
Villarrica	272	February, 23.7 °C	July, 3.6 °C	2,001 mm	February	—
Valdivia	305	February, 22.6 °C	July, 4.8 °C	1,818 mm	February	20
Osorno	260	February, 23.1 °C	July, 3.4 °C	1,277 mm	January	4
Puerto Montt	288	February, 18.7 °C	July, 4.3 °C	1,863 mm	February	16
Coyhaique	42	February, 14.9 °C	July, -3.6 °C	1,468 mm	February	3
Punta Arenas	161	February, 13.1 °C	July, -0.3 °C	819 mm	September	1

ERA5 2016–2025 via Open-Meteo, 25 km grid cell of each city; dates by the Greenly calendar and the plant cards.