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

We worked out the season of 15 cities of Turkey from ten years of weather: the frost-free season lasts from 158 days in Erzurum to 330 days in Antalya. The last spring frost comes first in Antalya (around 2 February) and last in Erzurum (around 11 May).

Climate zones of Turkey

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	Istanbul, Trabzon, Gaziantep, Adana, Antalya	275 – 330	2 February – 13 March	13 December – 29 December
210–269 frost-free days	Samsun, Bursa, Kayseri, Izmir, Diyarbakır, Konya	210 – 263	19 March – 14 April	9 November – 16 December
150–209 frost-free days	Ankara, Erzurum, Eskişehir, Van	158 – 205	13 April – 11 May	16 October – 4 November

How the regions of Turkey differ

Splitting the cities in two — north (Samsun, Istanbul, Trabzon and 4 more) and south (Van, Izmir, Diyarbakır and 4 more): the last spring frost comes about 12 days later in the north; the warmest month averages 30.2 °C by day in the north and 36.2 °C in the south; the north gets about 747 mm of rain a year and the south about 606 mm.

Splitting the cities in two — west (Ankara, Konya, Antalya and 4 more) and east (Van, Erzurum, Diyarbakır and 4 more): the last spring frost comes about 10 days later in the east; the frost-free season is about 260 days in the west and 248 days in the east; the warmest month averages 31.3 °C by day in the west and 30.2 °C in the east; the west gets about 692 mm of rain a year and the east about 501 mm.

The gap between the warmest month’s days and the coldest month’s nights is widest in Erzurum (40.5 °C) and smallest in Trabzon (22.6 °C): the smaller it is, the milder both winter and summer. Trabzon is the wettest of these cities with 1,137 mm a year, Konya the driest with 325 mm. The hottest summer days are in Diyarbakır (39.1 °C on average in the warmest month), the coolest in Trabzon (26.8 °C). In 7 of the 15 cities at least one month averages below 0 °C at night; the longest such winter is in Erzurum (November–March).

Which crops suit which part of Turkey

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	19 March (Adana) – 8 September (Antalya)	all 15	—
Cucumber	14 April (Adana) – 14 October (Antalya)	all 15	—
Bell Pepper, Eggplant	14 April (Adana) – 8 September (Antalya)	all 15	—
Zucchini	14 April (Adana) – 12 October (Antalya)	all 15	—
Pumpkin	14 April (Adana) – 3 September (Antalya)	all 15	—
Watermelon	14 April (Adana) – 19 September (Antalya)	all 15	—
Peas	12 January (Antalya) – 16 October (Antalya)	all 15	—
Garlic	Autumn planting: 16 September (Erzurum) – end of December (Samsun)	—	—
Tulip, Daffodil, Crocus, Hyacinth	Autumn planting: 16 September (Erzurum) – end of December (Ankara)	—	—

Cities of Turkey: weather in numbers

City	Frost-free days	Warmest month, day	Coldest month, night	Rain a year	Driest month	Places to buy
Samsun	260	August, 27 °C	January, 1.8 °C	909 mm	July	5
Istanbul	301	July, 29.2 °C	January, 3.8 °C	747 mm	August	39
Trabzon	275	August, 26.8 °C	January, 4.2 °C	1,137 mm	February	17
Bursa	260	August, 31.3 °C	January, 1.6 °C	850 mm	August	15
Ankara	202	August, 31.3 °C	January, -4 °C	426 mm	August	32
Erzurum	158	August, 30.2 °C	January, -10.3 °C	501 mm	August	—
Eskişehir	205	August, 30.8 °C	January, -3 °C	407 mm	July	19
Kayseri	210	August, 32.1 °C	January, -3.9 °C	445 mm	July	15
Van	188	August, 28.2 °C	January, -9.8 °C	420 mm	August	3
Izmir	263	July, 33.1 °C	January, 1.9 °C	692 mm	July	18
Diyarbakır	248	August, 39.1 °C	January, -1.3 °C	606 mm	July	4
Konya	217	August, 31.5 °C	January, -4 °C	325 mm	July	16
Gaziantep	305	July, 36.9 °C	January, 1.2 °C	439 mm	July	7
Adana	315	August, 36.2 °C	January, 5.8 °C	834 mm	July	9
Antalya	330	July, 37.3 °C	January, 5.1 °C	1,092 mm	July	16

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