The Fall Vegetable Planting Hub: What to Plant by USDA Zone

August 04, 2026

Fall vegetable planting fails for one reason more than any other: the seed went in on a date that worked last year, in a different zone, for a different crop. The window is not a season. It is a specific number of days counted backward from your average first frost, and it closes more than four months earlier in Zone 2a than it does in Zone 10b.

Every regional guide in the GardeningByZone vegetable gardening series works from the same first-frost arithmetic used below, applied to the crops and soil conditions of one climate region.

This page is the reference table. Find your zone, read two dates, and stop guessing.

How the Fall Vegetable Planting Cutoffs Are Calculated

Every date in the table below is derived from one number: the average first frost date published on that zone’s own page. From it, subtract the crop’s days to maturity, then subtract 14 more days.

Those extra 14 days are the fall factor. Seed packets quote days to maturity from spring trials, when daylight is lengthening and every week is warmer than the last. In autumn the opposite happens. Growth slows measurably as day length drops below about 10 hours, so a crop that finishes in 50 days in May commonly needs closer to 64 in September.

Two columns cover most of the vegetable garden. Fast crops mature in roughly 30 days, so they need 44 days before first frost. Slow crops need roughly 60 days, so they need 74.

Fall Planting Windows by Zone

Zone	Average First Frost	Sow Fast Crops By	Sow Slow Crops By
2a	September 1	July 19	June 19
3b	September 15	August 2	July 3
4a	September 25	August 12	July 13
4b	October 1	August 18	July 19
5a	October 8	August 25	July 26
5b	October 13	August 30	July 31
6a	October 15	September 1	August 2
6b	October 20	September 6	August 7
7a	October 28	September 14	August 15
7b	November 3	September 20	August 21
8a	November 10	September 27	August 28
8b	November 18	October 5	September 5
9a	November 28	October 15	September 15
9b	December 10	October 27	September 27
10a	December 20	November 6	October 7
10b	December 31	November 17	October 18
11a	December 31	November 17	October 18

In Zones 10b and 11a, frost is rare to nonexistent in a typical year. The December 31 date functions as the boundary of the cool-growing season rather than as a frost prediction, and the sowing cutoffs derived from it mark when planting still leaves time to harvest before spring heat arrives.

Match Your Crop to a Column

Days to maturity vary enough between crops that the fast and slow columns are not interchangeable. Use this to pick the right one.

Crop	Days to Maturity	Use This Column
Radish	25 to 30	Fast
Arugula	30 to 40	Fast
Spinach, baby leaf	30 to 35	Fast
Turnip	45 to 55	Slow
Leaf lettuce	45 to 55	Slow
Spinach, full size	40 to 45	Slow
Swiss chard	50 to 60	Slow
Kale	50 to 60	Slow
Beets	50 to 60	Slow
Collards	60 to 75	Slow
Broccoli, from transplant	60 to 70	Slow
Carrots	65 to 75	Slow
Cabbage	70 to 85	Slow, plus two weeks

Cabbage and cauliflower sit past the slow column in most zones. North of Zone 7a, start them indoors in midsummer and set out transplants, or skip them until spring.

Zones 2a Through 4b: One Window, and It Closes Early

The cold-zone fall garden is a single pass with no second chance. By the time most gardeners start thinking about fall, the slow-crop cutoff has already passed. In Zone 3b it went by in early July.

Plant fast crops only, and plant them the week the table says. Radishes, arugula, and baby spinach are the reliable choices. Skip carrots and broccoli in the ground and put the effort into extending what you already have growing.

Hardiness matters more here than anywhere else. Kale and spinach survive temperatures well into the 20s and often improve in flavor after a hard frost, so a crop that reaches usable size before the first frost date keeps producing for weeks past it. The cutoff is a sizing deadline, not a kill date.

Zones 5a Through 7b: Two Waves Instead of One

The middle zones get a real fall season. Sow the slow crops on schedule in midsummer, then follow with a fast-crop wave at the later cutoff.

In Zone 6a that means slow crops in early August and fast crops around the start of September. The pattern holds across the band, with each half zone shifting the dates about a week.

Soil temperature is the practical obstacle. Beds still sitting above 80°F in August will germinate radishes fine and spinach badly. Spinach germination drops off sharply above 75°F and nearly stops above 85°F. Shade cloth over a newly sown bed, or sowing in the late afternoon and watering the row cool, buys back the difference.

Zones 8a and 8b: Fall Is the Main Season

In Zone 8a, fall outperforms spring for nearly every cool-season crop. Spring in the lower South ends in a heat spike that bolts lettuce and turns spinach bitter within days. Fall does the reverse, moving from hot to mild to cool, which is exactly the direction these crops want.

Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, collards, and carrots all finish well here on the slow-crop cutoff. The one adjustment is at the front end: late August soil in Zone 8 is hot enough to stall germination outright, so start brassicas in trays indoors or in shade and transplant them out.

Zones 9a Through 11a: The Season Runs Through Winter

The warm zones invert the calendar. Cool-season crops run from the fall cutoff straight through to early spring, and the limiting factor at the far end is heat, not cold.

In Zone 9b, the fast-crop cutoff falls in late October, which means October and November plantings still have a full winter of mild growing weather ahead of them. Zones 10a through 11a can sow successionally every two to three weeks from the cutoff onward. Lettuce and spinach are the crops most worth successioning, since neither holds long once daytime temperatures climb back into the 80s.

Soil Temperature Decides Whether the Date Works

The table gives you a date. Soil temperature decides whether the seed sown on that date actually comes up.

Cool-season vegetables germinate reliably between 45°F and 75°F. Above 80°F, lettuce enters thermal dormancy and simply refuses. Spinach germination falls off above 75°F. Radishes and turnips are the exceptions and will sprout in soil into the mid 80s, which is why they are the safe first sowing in any zone where the cutoff arrives while summer is still going.

Measure at two inches deep in the morning, not in the afternoon. Afternoon readings on a bare bed run well above what the seed at depth experiences.

When Your Cutoff Has Already Passed

A missed date is not the end of the fall garden. Row covers add roughly one half zone of protection, and a cold frame adds closer to one and a half, which in practice shifts the frost date late enough to finish a crop that would otherwise run out of time. Details on what each structure is worth are in first frost prep with cold frames and row covers by zone.

The other option is to stop planting for harvest and plant for spring. Garlic goes in after the first frost in most zones. Cover crops sown at the fast-crop cutoff still establish enough root mass to be worth it. Both put the bed to work without asking a vegetable to beat a date it cannot beat.

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