When to Plant Cucumbers in Texas: Fall Dates by Region
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension’s own cucumbers dates for Texas, row by row and never averaged, beside NOAA frost dates for Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Austin Bergstrom Airport, and Houston Intercontinental Airport.
Updated
Figures checked against their sources on ; next check .
The cucumber entry under the heading “Cucumber” in Texas’s calendar is read across 5 regions. Reading down the first date column, Region I leads at July 15 and Region V trails at October 1. The guide says fall crops generally do better when started from transplants than from seed.
Texas’s dates, row by row
Nothing in the table has been rounded or reworded.
| Region | Average fall planting date | Last optimum date |
|---|---|---|
| Region I | Jul 15 | — |
| Region II | Aug 1 | — |
| Region III | Sep 1 | — |
| Region IV | Sep 10 | — |
| Region V | Oct 1 | — |
What to know about this source
Texas A&M’s fall guide prints the average planting date for fall vegetables in five growing regions, numbered I to V, and says that planting at the proper time is probably the most important factor in successful fall gardening. A second table gives the last optimum dates for seeding or transplanting a few crops, including tomatoes and peppers.
Varieties Texas names
If you want names to look for, the source lists Dasher II, Poinsett 76, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success, Calypso, Carolina, and County Fair 87.
We have not tested any of these, and the page adds no names of its own.
Starting cucumbers indoors
How early to sow indoors depends on the crop more than the state, and the saved sources agree on the shape if not the numbers; UNH’s figure is 3 to 4 weeks.
Only UNH puts a number of weeks on cucumbers; the Minnesota row in the table is a handling tip, not a schedule.
In the garden itself, UNH sows cucumbers once the soil reaches 70 °F, which a soil thermometer answers better than any calendar.
| Source | What it says |
|---|---|
| University of New Hampshire | 3 to 4 weeks from seed to transplant; 1 to 2 weeks after the last frost is safe to set out |
| University of Minnesota | Cucumbers and squash transplant poorly, so raise them in fiber or paper pots that break down in the soil |
Where the frost dates fall in Texas
NOAA’s 1991-2020 normals give nine probability levels for each station; the table keeps only the middle one, the even-odds date, and the links open the rest.
No city is assigned to a region below, because the source does not assign them.
| Station | Last spring 32°F | First fall 32°F | Region in the calendar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Texas | March 8 | November 24 | Not stated by the source |
| Austin Bergstrom Airport, Texas | March 12 | November 16 | Not stated by the source |
| Houston Intercontinental Airport, Texas | February 13 | December 9 | Not stated by the source |
| San Antonio International Airport, Texas | February 26 | November 28 | Not stated by the source |
| Waco Regional Airport, Texas | March 15 | November 15 | Not stated by the source |
Worked example
NOAA’s normals for Houston Intercontinental Airport, Texas give February 13 as the even-odds date of the last spring 32°F night, and December 9 as the even-odds first fall one.
The guide does not say which region Houston Intercontinental Airport belongs to, so use the ends of the table. Region I’s average planting date, July 15, is 147 days before the median first freeze; Region V’s, October 1, is 69 days before it.
Do the same subtraction for your own town: choose its nearest station in the frost dates tool, take the 50% dates, and compare them with the row for your part of Texas.
Before you rely on these dates
This is a fall guide, so it prints no spring dates; this page covers fall planting only.
Soil that is cold or soaked can hold a crop back even inside the printed window, so check the ground as well as the calendar.
Sources (4)
- Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (Larry Stein and Joe Masabni), Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide, EHT-056, May 2014 aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu
- NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, annual and seasonal normals (frost/freeze probabilities by station) ncei.noaa.gov
- University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, Growing Vegetables: When to Plant Your Vegetable Garden (fact sheet) extension.unh.edu
- University of Minnesota Extension, Starting seeds indoors (page reviewed 2026) extension.umn.edu