When to Plant Summer Squash and Zucchini in North Carolina: Spring and Fall Windows for Central NC

What North Carolina’s extension calendar says about summer squash, copied region by region, plus the frost record at Raleigh Durham International Airport, Piedmont Triad International Airport, and Charlotte Douglas Airport.

By Paul Gunder · How we check our sources

Updated November 11, 2026

Figures checked against their sources on November 11, 2026; next check May 8, 2027.

NC State Extension gives summer squash their own row under the heading “Squash, summer”, with dates for 1 part of the state. The source gives months or relative shifts rather than calendar days; in order, Central North Carolina (Apr 1 to Aug 1 (seed or transplant)).

What NC State Extension prints for summer squash

Nothing in the table has been rounded or reworded.

Summer squash planting dates in North Carolina, as printed by NC State Extension (one row per part of the state, none averaged)
Part of the state	Spring windows	Fall windows
Central North Carolina	Apr 1 to Aug 1 (seed or transplant)	—

How the North Carolina calendar is built

NC State’s calendar is written for central North Carolina and sets each crop’s windows on a chart of half-month columns, marking each column S for seed or T for transplants. It says the dates are suggested guidelines that should give the highest probability of success, and that plants established in the middle of the recommended dates will do best.

Starting summer squash indoors

Indoor sowing is the one part of the job no state table above settles. The University of New Hampshire gives 3 to 4 weeks between sowing and transplanting.

Only UNH puts a number of weeks on summer squash; the Minnesota row in the table is a handling tip, not a schedule.

In the garden itself, UNH sows summer squash once the soil reaches 70 °F, which a soil thermometer answers better than any calendar.

Indoor start for summer squash: what each saved source says (one row per source, none averaged)
Source	What it says
University of New Hampshire	3 to 4 weeks from seed to transplant; 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

Typical frost dates at North Carolina stations

A 50% frost date is a coin flip, not a promise. In half of the years the last spring freeze comes later than the date shown, and in half of them the first fall freeze comes earlier.

Regions in the last column come from the source’s wording, never from our reading of a map.

NOAA 1991-2020 normals for North Carolina stations: 50% last spring and first fall 32°F dates
Station	Last spring 32°F	First fall 32°F	Region in North Carolina’s calendar
Raleigh Durham International Airport, North Carolina	March 31	November 4	Central North Carolina
Piedmont Triad International Airport, North Carolina	March 30	November 5	Central North Carolina
Charlotte Douglas Airport, North Carolina	March 30	November 3	Central North Carolina
Fayetteville Regional Airport, North Carolina	March 22	November 13	Central North Carolina
Asheville Regional Airport, North Carolina	April 9	October 28	Not stated by the source

Worked example

For a gardener near Fayetteville Regional Airport, NOAA’s even-odds frost dates are March 22 in spring and November 13 in fall.

Central North Carolina lists April 1 to August 1. Counting from the frost date, that is an opening 10 days after it and a close 132 days after it.

This is arithmetic on two printed figures, not a forecast: it moves with the year, and your own garden can sit weeks away from the station. Look up the station nearest you in the frost dates tool and repeat the subtraction.

Before you rely on these dates

The calendar is for central North Carolina only; the mountains and the coast run earlier or later, and the page gives no dates for them.

Pencil the printed dates into a calendar, then adjust them after you have watched your own garden for a season.

Sources (4)