Central NC Vegetable Planting Calendar: Spring and Fall Windows

In short: Each crop has one or two planting windows, written as the half-months NC State recommends. The windows are for central North Carolina; gardeners elsewhere should read them as a pattern, not as dates.

Why use a planting calendar from one region

Use it to find out whether it is the right time to put a crop in the ground in central North Carolina, and whether to plant seed or a transplant. The table comes from NC State Extension's publication AG-756-01, which is written for central North Carolina, and this page rebuilds it for all 56 crops it lists.

NC State calls its dates suggested guidelines that should give the highest probability of success, and says planting dates should be adjusted when the weather varies from year to year. Treat each window as a range to work inside, not a deadline.

How to read the table

The source table has a column for the first and the fifteenth of every month. Each date on this page is one of those columns. A window written Apr 15 to Jul 1 runs from the second half of April through the first half of July. A one-column window, written as a single date such as Aug 1, is just that half-month.

The Plant as column translates NC State's letters: S for seed, T for a transplant, Tu for a tuber, C for a crown and B for a bulb. A crop planted more than one way shows each way next to its dates. Two more notes carry over from the source. A double asterisk means the seed must be started indoors and moved to the garden later, never sown in place. And all the dates are for planting outside in the garden. To grow your own transplants, seed 6 to 8 weeks before the T date.

The windows are split by when they start, in January to June or in July to December, because the source does not label spring and fall. A window that starts in the first half of the year and runs on past June stays whole in the first column. 33 crops have windows in both columns, and 21 have windows only in the first half.

NC State adds that plants set out in the middle of a window do best, with lower success rates at its early and late ends, and that planting again every few weeks within the window stretches the harvest.

Reading across the table

The shape of a window tells you as much as its dates. Bush peas open earliest, with a spring window of Jan 1 to Apr 1, and Irish potatoes follow at Feb 15 to Mar 15. Sweet corn has a short spring window, Mar 15 to May 15, and no second chance. Bush snap beans have the opposite shape, a window of Mar 15 to Sep 15 that spans the summer, which leaves room for the repeat plantings NC State suggests. Garlic is planted as bulbs in Sep 15 to Nov 15, the only one of these that goes in during autumn. Peppers are transplants only, set out Apr 15 to Jun 1 and again in Aug 1.

Worked example: tomatoes and head lettuce

Tomatoes are listed as transplants only. Their first window is Apr 15 to Jul 1, and they have a second, one-column window at Aug 1. To have a transplant ready for Apr 15, seed 6 to 8 weeks earlier, which counts back to about Feb 18 at the early end and Mar 4 at the late end. The table puts tomatoes at 75 to 85 days to harvest from a transplant.

Head lettuce shows a crop planted two ways. Seed goes in during Feb 1 to Mar 1 and transplants during Mar 15 to Apr 15. The fall pattern repeats it, with seed during Aug 15 to Sep 1 and transplants during Sep 15 to Oct 1. Read the second window as another go at the same crop, not as an extension of the first.

Reading the pattern in another climate

The table is written for central North Carolina. Its authors say freezing temperatures, high temperatures, humidity and strong sun are all common there and can stress plants, and that the climate, the season and likely pests shape what and when to plant. Garden somewhere with a different last frost, and every date on this page moves.

What carries over is the pattern. Peas, Irish potatoes and garlic sit in the cool parts of the table, and tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are listed as transplants only. Use your own last and first frost dates to place those windows, and start from the frost dates page. Soil warmth matters too. NC State advises delaying spring planting until soils become warm, to reduce fungal and bacterial disease problems, so wait for the soil as well as the calendar. The days to harvest chart uses the same source and says how long each crop then needs.

What the dates leave out

The table was published on July 8, 2016, and its dates are guidelines. Spun-woven covers and plastic mulches can let you plant earlier in spring and harvest later into fall, according to the source, so a gardener who protects plants may reasonably step outside a window.