FALL GROWING GUIDE · REGION III
When to plant
peppers
in Central & East Texas.
Peppers need time to establish before shorter autumn days. The fall reference date is for setting out transplants, not an instruction to start seed outdoors that day.
AVERAGE FALL PLANTING DATE
July 1
Transplant · Frost sensitive
LAST OPTIMUM DATE
July 25
Separate guidance from source Table 2.
A recurring regional reference from the 2014 Extension guide. This is not a forecast or a guaranteed growing window.
What this means for your garden.
Austin, Dallas, Waco and Houston appear within Region III on the historical source map. That grouping is a broad planning reference, not a claim that these cities share identical weather.
For peppers, the regional reference is July 1, with July 25 listed separately as the last optimum date. The calendar separates July tomato starts from much later root and leaf crops. Do not treat a pleasant September weekend as a reason to start every vegetable at once.
Your next three steps
- Choose the right start.
Use the packet or transplant label to compare maturity times. Choosing a plant with a long route to harvest may be a poor fit late in the season.
- Give the plant a good first week.
Check young plants frequently after transplanting. Inspect soil moisture before adding water; a hot afternoon alone does not tell you how wet the root zone is.
- Keep a record you can use next season.
Save your planned date, then change it to the day you actually plant. Record completion in My Garden; the reference calendar stays separate from your own history.
WHY LOCATION MATTERS
One crop. Five different calendars.
How the same crop’s average date compares with Central & East Texas.
Texas PanhandleJune 130 days earlierWest TexasJune 1516 days earlierCoastal South TexasJuly 1514 days laterRio Grande ValleyAugust 131 days laterSource, scope & a little context.
Table 1 supplies average fall planting dates. Table 2 supplies last optimum dates only for the crops it lists. Figure 1 defines the five historical gardening regions; these are not current USDA hardiness zones.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension · Fall Vegetable Gardening Guide (EHT-056) ↗Dates: Table 1, p. 2; last optimum date: Table 2, p. 3. Region: Figure 1, p. 3. Source checked 2026-09-27. Editorial care notes are general planning advice; your county Extension office can refine them.
Read our methodology →