Planting calendar by ZIP code
What to plant now
What can you plant this month where you live? Enter a ZIP code or your location: the list comes from 30 years of climate at your spot, not from a national zone map.
Your planting list
Enter a US ZIP code or town, use your location, or click the map anywhere in the world.
Pick a place to see what to plant in October.
How the list is made
- Monthly temperature and frost days for your spot: precomputed ERA5-Land normals (1996–2025) near our reference regions, otherwise 30 years of daily weather at the point.
- Each crop's season comes from the same model our field audit uses: FAO GAEZ crop types where they exist, and the crop's own heat need and temperature limits otherwise.
- The verdict rates the season's temperatures against the crop's range. It does not look at your soil or water: the full audit does.
- Tested against eight state extension calendars and USDA field-crop dates: 93% of crops within a month.
Sources: Iowa State University Extension, University of Minnesota Extension, Ohio State University Extension, UGA Extension, Texas A&M AgriLife (Harris County), UF/IFAS (central Florida), UC Master Gardeners (San Joaquin Valley), University of Arizona Extension (Maricopa County), USDA NASS usual planting dates.
Planting questions
What can I plant now?
It depends on where you are. The tool reads 30 years of climate for your spot and lists the crops whose sowing window is open this month: what to start indoors, what to transplant and what to sow outside. In much of the US, October is for garlic, winter wheat and fall greens in the South; March and April open the main spring planting.
How does the planting calendar by ZIP code work?
Your ZIP code is turned into coordinates. For each crop we find the first month in which the local temperatures, frost and heat let it grow to harvest, using the same season model as our full field audit. Frost-tender crops (tomatoes, beans, squash) get a two-month window; hardy crops (peas, lettuce, onions) get the opening month, plus the next while it is still cool.
How accurate is it?
We checked it against the extension planting calendars for eight places (central Iowa, central Minnesota, central Ohio, middle Georgia, the Texas Gulf coast, central Florida, Fresno and Phoenix), plus USDA field-crop planting dates: 237 of 254 crops fell within a month of the published window. It is weakest in frost-free places such as central Florida, where heat and summer rain set the season more than temperature does; those crops are marked.
When should I start seeds indoors?
Start transplants indoors about six weeks before they go outside (tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, basil) and eight to ten weeks for slow starters (peppers, eggplant, onions, leeks, celery). The tool lists them in the month to sow them indoors.
Why does a crop say "Check locally"?
Where we know our model disagrees with growers at that place (for example cotton rated suitable in Iowa, or tomatoes rated low in Fresno by the full audit), the crop is still listed with its months but without a verdict.