Regional guide
Louisiana North and South Vegetable Planting Guide
An LSU AgCenter guide for north and south Louisiana vegetable dates, central and coastal caveats, seed depth, spacing, and harvest timing.
Climate signals
- LSU AgCenter Pub. 1980 says its planting-date table has columns for both north Louisiana and south Louisiana gardeners.
- Central Louisiana gardeners should defer to north Louisiana planting dates for spring vegetable crops, but can use dates from either north or south Louisiana for fall crops.
- For spring vegetables, LSU says the first planting should generally be made after the danger of frost is over: March 15 for south Louisiana and April 1 for central/north Louisiana.
- Coastal Louisiana gardeners may extend the fall planting season by a month in many cases, and may begin transplanting warm-season crops as soon as late February.
- The guide says the table is a guide and gardeners should pay attention to local forecasts before planting on suggested dates.
Planning notes
- The cultural table pairs each crop with south Louisiana spring/fall dates, north Louisiana spring/fall dates, depth to plant seeds, space between plants, and days until harvest.
- Beans, snap, bush include Provider in the variety list; the crop row is direct-seed, 48-55 days, South 2/15-5/15 spring and 9/1-10/1 fall, and North 3/15-5/15 spring and 9/1-10/1 fall.
- Beets include Detroit Dark Red in the variety list; the crop row is direct-seed, 55-60 days, South 1/15-3/15 spring and 8/15-11/15 fall, and North 2/1-3/31 spring and 9/15-11/15 fall.
- Carrots include Danvers 126 in the variety list and use a direct-seed row with South 1/15-3/15 spring and 8/15-11/15 fall, and North 1/15-4/1 spring and 8/15-10/15 fall.
- Tomatoes are plants, 60-75 days from transplanting, with South 3/15-5/15 spring and 7/1-8/15 fall, and North 3/20-6/30 spring and 7/1-8/10 fall.
- Watermelons include Sugar Baby in the variety list; the crop row is direct-seed or plants, 90-110 days, South 3/15-7/15 spring, North 3/15-6/30 spring, and no fall window listed.
- The English/Garden peas variety list includes Sugar Snap; use the Peas, English direct-seed row instead of treating southern peas or cowpeas as the same catalog crop.
- If starting transplants, LSU gives count-back guidance: tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant are seeded six to 10 weeks before planting; cucurbits are seeded three to four weeks before planting; lettuce, kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts are seeded five to six weeks before planting.
Catalog crop examples
These catalog entries match crops covered by the regional timing source; variety-specific details remain tied to each seed entry's own source.
- Provider Bush Bean Vegetable · Warm · 50 days
- Detroit Dark Red Beet Vegetable · Cool · 58 days
- Long Island Improved Brussels Sprouts Vegetable · Cool · 100 days
- Danvers 126 Carrot Vegetable · Shoulder · 70 days
- Black Beauty Eggplant Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
- Early White Vienna Kohlrabi Vegetable · Cool · 55 days
- Southern Giant Curled Mustard Vegetable · Cool · 45 days
- Clemson Spineless Okra Vegetable · Warm · 56 days
- Sugar Snap Pea Vegetable · Cool · 62 days
- Small Sugar Pumpkin Vegetable · Warm · 100 days
- Bloomsdale Spinach Vegetable · Cool · 42 days
- Sugar Baby Watermelon Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
Related regional guides
- South Carolina Spring and Fall Garden Clemson HGIC 1256 guide for South Carolina Piedmont and Coastal Plain planting-chart rows, freeze timing, spacing, and harvest days.
- Mississippi Zone Planting Dates Vegetable Garden An MSU Extension guide for Mississippi Zone 1-5 vegetable planting dates, cool and warm crop windows, and transplant cutoffs.
- Alabama North and South Vegetable Seasons Garden An Alabama Extension guide for North and South Alabama vegetable seasons, spring/fall windows, maturity days, spacing, and not-recommended cells.