When to Plant Cucumbers in Virginia: Spring and Fall Dates by Zone
Virginia Cooperative Extension’s own cucumbers dates for Virginia, row by row and never averaged, beside NOAA frost dates for Roanoke Regional Airport, Charlottesville Airport, and Richmond International Airport.
Updated
Figures checked against their sources on ; next check .
For cucumbers, Virginia Cooperative Extension prints 6 zones; the table below copies each entry as printed. How far apart are the rows? 39 days, from April 1 in Zone 8b to May 10 in Zone 6a. Nothing on this row separates seed from transplants.
Virginia’s dates, row by row
Table 5 of the same guide puts cucumbers at 2-4 plants per person, with 2-3 plantings in spring and summer and none in fall.
| Zone | Spring planting | Fall planting |
|---|---|---|
| Zone 6a | May 10-June 10 | June 10-July 10 |
| Zone 6b | May 1-June 10 | June 10-July 10 |
| Zone 7a | April 20-June 20 | June 20-July 20 |
| Zone 7b | April 10-June 10 | June 10-Aug 1 |
| Zone 8a | April 10-July 1 | July 1-Aug 10 |
| Zone 8b | April 1-July 1 | July 1-Aug 10 |
Reading the Virginia Cooperative Extension table
Virginia Cooperative Extension builds its planting guide on USDA hardiness zones, from 6a to 8b, and prints a separate table of dates for each pair of zones. Its first table prints the median last spring frost and first fall frost as a range for each zone, for example April 5-15 and October 25-November 5 in zone 7b.
Starting cucumbers indoors
Seed-starting advice for cucumbers comes from other states’ extension services, and it counts weeks rather than dates. UNH allows 3 to 4 weeks from seed to transplant.
Expect less guidance here than for tomatoes: cucumbers get a single timed source and a note on pots.
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 Virginia
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.
Virginia Cooperative Extension does not say which of its zones each city falls in, so the table does not guess.
| Station | Last spring 32°F | First fall 32°F | Region in the calendar |
|---|---|---|---|
| Roanoke Regional Airport, Virginia | April 3 | November 1 | Not stated by the source |
| Charlottesville Airport, Virginia | April 3 | November 1 | Not stated by the source |
| Richmond International Airport, Virginia | April 3 | November 4 | Not stated by the source |
| Norfolk International Airport, Virginia | March 17 | November 23 | Not stated by the source |
| Washington DC Dulles Airport, Virginia | April 15 | October 24 | Not stated by the source |
Worked example
For a gardener near Richmond International Airport, NOAA’s even-odds frost dates are April 3 in spring and November 4 in fall.
The calendar does not say which zone Richmond International Airport belongs to, so set the date against the rows at each end. Zone 8b opens April 1, 2 days before that date; Zone 6a opens May 10, 37 days after it.
Treat the result as a way to see how far the printed dates sit from a real frost record. Your yard may run weeks off the station, so repeat the sum with the station closest to you.
Before you rely on these dates
The guide says actual last and first killing frost dates vary with local conditions and from year to year, and invites gardeners to favor earlier or later dates within a range.
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)
- Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech (Jadrnicek and Hessler), Virginia's Home Garden Vegetable Planting Guide: Recommended Planting Dates and Amounts to Plant, publication 426-331 (SPES-673P), May 30, 2025 pubs.ext.vt.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