What are the Growing Seasons in Texas?

photo by Julia Keim

Why is salad season in the middle of winter and why do we harvest “winter squash” in June? The answer to both of these questions is our Texas Seasonality!

If you were not born and raised in Texas, you are probably most familiar with the seasons of the East Coast and the Midwest: plant in April and May, have fruiting crops come into season in June and July, and harvest the latest fall crops in September and October before the frost hits and it all starts over again the next April. This version of seasonality that is based on a more northern latitude definitely shapes national food media’s notions of what “seasonal” eating means.

But here in Texas, we have a wildly other reality than those farming in the north. Our planting seasons are so completely different. Instead of one, longer window, we have two very short mini-seasons where young plants can survive without being scorched by a hard frost or burned by the sun and high summer temps. Farming in Texas is a wild game of 4-dimensional Tetris. We have very brief planting windows, bordered by very extreme temperatures, which makes everything dramatic and just a little more difficult than I wish it would be :-)

In Central Texas, our “spring” season really begins in mid-February, despite the fact that your calendar claims it doesn’t start until March 20th. This is when we plant crops like broccoli, cabbage, radishes, lettuces, and other cold-hardy vegetables that can stand up to the last touches of frost and finish up before the first intense rays of heat. Once we reach that mid-March mark where danger of frost has passed, we can plant the first successions of warm-weather crops like zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant. 

Right now, we are in a magical time when, for a few glorious weeks of unparalleled abundance, some of the cool-season crop and warm-season crop availability will overlap. By the end of May, however, crops like broccoli and kale which are currently in the ground will need to be out of the ground. By May, they just can’t stand up to the heat. Even tomatoes stop producing fruit in July due to the extreme temperatures. We have to harvest all of our “winter squash” like acorn and butternut in June before the hot sun burns up the hardy (but not that hardy) vines. The only crops that are tough enough to really make it through the summer in Central Texas are long beans, peppers, okra, and some melons. 

When the most extreme summer heat starts to dissipate around September, we farmers are gifted another brief (fall) planting season when we can transplant crops like cabbage, cauliflower, and collards into the fields. If all goes well, these crops have just enough time to grow to maturity before December and January’s hard frosts.  

Another way to stretch the seasons and keep CSA going is planning ahead for bulk storage crops. Things like cabbage, purple daikon and watermelon radishes, yellow onions, potatoes and sweet potatoes, hard squash, carrots, and beets can be grown in large amounts, harvested, and stored to keep for use during times of extreme heat and extreme cold. 

Summary: Texas has two short main growing seasons instead of one long main season. Whereas most farmers in the Northeast take off during the winter months when snow covers the ground, we Texas farmers (can) have a bit of reprieve in summer’s hottest months before fall planting mania starts again. (We can also decide to grunt it out during the summer and fill our fields with okra and peppers…but that’s another story.)  

Veggie Forecast for End of Spring + Start of Summer

Ready Now - final Spring goodies + first warm-weather crops

• Spring Onions (plus we’ll be drying some short-term storage onions to carry you through the next few months)

• Sprouting Broccoli (for another couple weeks)

• Last of the Cauliflower

• Fennel

• Potatoes!

• Bok Choy (before it gets too hot)

• Dil - it’s on the way out

• Our final Lettuce Heads will be ready in the next week or so

Ready Soon - Summer Favorites

• Peppers - shishitos were the first to size up, now we’re waiting for sweet lunchbox peppers to color up

• Tomatoes - so many delicious, juicy varieties that are sure to ripen up any day now

• Zucchini - we had one short first succession that was overtaken by squash bugs, but the next round is coming up in a couple weeks

• Cucumbers - small varieties perfect for snacking and pickling coming in a couple weeks

• Eggplant - 3-4 weeks until those purple gems start popping

Thanks for reading!

- Farmer Becky