Regional guide

Texas Fall Vegetable Garden

A Texas fall vegetable guide for five AgriLife gardening regions, fall planting dates, transplants, and frost-tolerance grouping.

Choose local dates, then plan your crops

Check local planting windows and seed maturity estimates to decide what to sow. The Region III planner can print your plan and save dated jobs to a calendar.

See the Austin bean example

The planner and bean example use AgriLife Region III crop dates. Changing a frost station does not make those dates Houston planting guidance.

View Austin / Travis County frost example and sources

Austin / Travis County frost example

Current regional planting plan

Source-backed timing Texas A&M AgriLife fall vegetable gardening guide

Texas Fall 253 frost-free days

Mar 5 last frost spring release Nov 13 first frost fall limit

Texas A&M AgriLife separates fall vegetable planting dates into five gardening regions instead of one statewide date.
Region I starts many fall crops in June, July, and August, while Region V lists average planting dates of December 15 for beets, carrots, chard, collards, mustard, radish, spinach, turnip, and other cool-season rows.
The guide maps Texas gardening zones to USDA hardiness ranges from Zone I through Zone V and average minimum temperatures.

Catalog priority: 21 priority crops
Climate checks: 4 climate signals
Timing basis: Using Travis County dates

Source-backed timing March 5 last frost and November 13 first frost using the Austin-Bergstrom station row.

Travis County stations vary; choose a warmer or cooler date if your site tracks a different station.

Crop priority Provider Bush Bean leads the catalog examples

Provider Bush Bean, Detroit Dark Red Beet, Waltham 29 Broccoli, Golden Acre Cabbage

Next local check Use the regional fall table before planting: snap bush beans start July 15 in Region I, August 1 in Region II, September 1 in Region III, September 10 in Region IV, and October 1 in Region V.

Use cool-season rows such as beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, chard, collards, lettuce, mustard, radish, spinach, and turnip as the main frost-tolerant fall backbone.

Calendar Convert regional timing into dated sowing, transplant, and harvest jobs. Frost dates Keep hardiness zone context separate from local first and last frost dates. All regions Compare this guide with the broader regional atlas. Texas Home Garden Texas A&M AgriLife frost-relative home vegetable guide for spring/fall timing, transplant care, seed depth, watering, mulch, and pests.

Still plantable right now

Texas is one of five regions with a dated answer, built from the windows AgriLife publishes and the local first frost date.

What can I still plant in Texas right now? Crops still worth sowing, crops already too late this year, and what to sow instead.

Worked example

Check a Region III bean planting against a local frost average

Illustrative fall 2027 plan · AgriLife Region III · Austin-Bergstrom frost station

Region III snap bush bean date: Sep 1, 2027
Provider catalog maturity: 50 days from direct sowing
Austin-Bergstrom first frost: Nov 13, 2027 · 10-year average

Choose the correct AgriLife region first. Its snap bush bean dates differ: Region I Jul 15, II Aug 1, III Sep 1, IV Sep 10 and V Oct 1.
For this Region III example, direct sow on Sep 1, 2027. Add Provider’s 50-day catalog estimate to get Oct 21, 2027.
Compare that estimate with Austin-Bergstrom’s Nov 13, 2027 average: the illustrative margin is 23 days. Beans are frost susceptible, so check your site and forecast rather than treating that margin as protection.

AgriLife supplies the regional date, the seed packet supplies variety maturity, and the January 2025 guide supplies the 10-year station average. That average describes past weather; other Travis County stations differ. Cooler weather can slow maturity, so these combined inputs are planning estimates.

Next action

For AgriLife Region III, open the planner, choose a local frost station and compare source-backed crop windows. For Regions I, II, IV or V, use the linked AgriLife table for your region.

Build my Region III planting plan

Continue online: https://seedgardenexplorer.com/plant-now/texas

Use your browser’s Print command for this example. Link to this example. Interactive print and copy controls appear when JavaScript is enabled.

Climate signals

Texas A&M AgriLife separates fall vegetable planting dates into five gardening regions instead of one statewide date.
Region I starts many fall crops in June, July, and August, while Region V lists average planting dates of December 15 for beets, carrots, chard, collards, mustard, radish, spinach, turnip, and other cool-season rows.
The guide maps Texas gardening zones to USDA hardiness ranges from Zone I through Zone V and average minimum temperatures.
Fall vegetable planning must separate frost-tolerant crops from frost-susceptible crops because the first killing frost defines how long each crop can stay useful.

Planning notes

Use the regional fall table before planting: snap bush beans start July 15 in Region I, August 1 in Region II, September 1 in Region III, September 10 in Region IV, and October 1 in Region V.
Use cool-season rows such as beets, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, chard, collards, lettuce, mustard, radish, spinach, and turnip as the main frost-tolerant fall backbone.
Use tomato, pepper, and eggplant as transplant-focused fall crops; the source lists last optimum transplant dates and says transplants should always be used for fall tomatoes and peppers.
Water late-summer transplants carefully, keep them moist without saturating the soil, and use afternoon shade while establishing large transplants.
Treat corn, cucumber, eggplant, pepper, pumpkin, squash, tomato, and other frost-susceptible crops as short-term fall crops that must finish before frost.

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
Waltham 29 Broccoli Vegetable · Cool · 74 days
Golden Acre Cabbage Vegetable · Cool · 64 days
Danvers 126 Carrot Vegetable · Shoulder · 70 days
Bright Lights Swiss Chard Vegetable · Shoulder · 55 days
Georgia Southern Collards Vegetable · Cool · 65 days
Golden Bantam Sweet Corn Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
Marketmore 76 Cucumber Vegetable · Warm · 58 days
Black Beauty Eggplant Vegetable · Warm · 80 days
Early White Vienna Kohlrabi Vegetable · Cool · 55 days
Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce Vegetable · Cool · 45 days
Southern Giant Curled Mustard Vegetable · Cool · 45 days
Italian Flat Leaf Parsley Herb · Shoulder · 75 days
California Wonder Pepper Vegetable · Warm · 72 days
Small Sugar Pumpkin Vegetable · Warm · 100 days
French Breakfast Radish Vegetable · Cool · 28 days
Bloomsdale Spinach Vegetable · Cool · 42 days
Waltham Butternut Squash Vegetable · Warm · 95 days
Roma Tomato Vegetable · Warm · 76 days
Purple Top White Globe Turnip Vegetable · Cool · 55 days

Related regional guides

Texas Home Vegetable Gardening Guide Texas A&M AgriLife frost-relative home vegetable guide for spring/fall timing, transplant care, seed depth, watering, mulch, and pests.
Travis County Vegetable Planting Guide Texas A&M AgriLife Travis County 2025 planting guide for station frost averages, ideal/marginal timing, and crop-row examples.
Harris County Vegetable Planting Dates Texas AgriLIFE Harris County chart for seed-unless-noted rows, ideal/marginal timing, freeze averages, and heat-shade cautions.
Rockwall North Central Texas Vegetable Planting Guide Rockwall County Master Gardeners guide for North Central Texas dates, frost averages, soil-temperature checks, and crop rows.
East Texas Vegetable Planting Guide Henderson County Master Gardeners East Texas guide for spring/fall dates, spacing, harvest days, yields, and variety examples.

Source: Texas A&M AgriLife fall vegetable gardening guide