When to Plant Cool Season Vegetables in Florida

Gardening in the fall and winter months brings a much-welcomed ease to the vegetable garden. This may have you wondering when to plant cool season vegetables. With less heat, disease, and pest pressure, I think it’s the perfect time to grow some food.  

When to Plant Cool Season Vegetables in Florida

If you have gardened in Florida, you know how tough spring and summer gardening can be. Other than the absence of homegrown tomatoes, I love growing a vegetable garden in the cool temperatures of late fall and winter months.  

Growing Cool-Season Crops in Florida 

Despite the warm temperatures, cool-season crops can be started in late summer or early fall in Florida. I like to start my first succession of cool-season crops by seeding indoors to get them off to a good start. By the time the temperatures cool down a bit the transplants can be hardened off and put into the vegetable garden.

When to Plant Cool Season Vegetables for Succession Planting

I like to aim to have my first succession planting of cool season transplants in the ground by the beginning of October.  From then on, I like to direct sow seeds throughout the fall and winter months for multiple harvests of cool season veggies. Cool season plants can tolerate light frost, growing well into early spring.

What to Plant in Your Cool Season Vegetable Garden

I like to call it salad season!  The winter garden is the perfect time of year to grow all the leafy greens, brassicas, and root vegetables. Homegrown leafy greens for a salad are not even comparable to grocery store lettuce. 

• Arugula
• Leaf Lettuce
• Heading Lettuce
• Kale
• Cabbage
• Collard Greens
• Spinach
• Broccoli
• Bok Choy
• Brussels Sprouts
• Swiss Chard
• Mustard Greens
• Cauliflower
• Beets
• Root Crops like Carrots, Radishes, and Onions
• Potatoes (fall or early spring)
• Snow Peas
• Garlic
• Leek
• Asparagus
• Turnips
• Kohlrabi
• Chives
• Calendula
• Parsely

Start Planning in Late Summer or Early Fall

As the summer garden and warm-season crops start to wind down you can start planning when to plant cool season vegetables. Planning out the fall and winter garden ahead of time will help give you an idea of how many cool season vegetable seeds to start. 

By late August, I usually have a handful of brassica seeds started indoors.  Brassicas are not quick growers, so starting them early is helpful.  

Starting Seeds Indoors to Transplant

Grab those seed starting treys or make some DIY seed starting pots to start sowing your cool season vegetable seeds. Just be sure you are using a good seed starting mix.  Sow your seeds to the appropriate depth. Specific information for each crop can be found on the back of the seed packet.  

I like to keep my seed starting setup out in the open so I am sure to not forget to water them.  Keeping the soil moist will help those little seeds germinate. Once they have sprouted, be sure to have them in a nice sunny window or under a grow light so they don’t get leggy.

Direct Sowing Seeds in the Garden

There are a ton of cool-weather vegetables that you can direct sow into the garden.  Most of these seeds are tiny little seeds that can be easily lost in the soil which is why I like to sow small seeds in a sand trench.  

In your garden beds dig a 1/2 inch deep trench in the garden soil and fill it with sand.  Sow your tiny seeds in the sand trench and lightly cover them with more sand.  The sand helps keep tiny seeds in place so they don’t get washed away as easily.  

Keep your sand trench consistently moist. Sand is a very well-drained soil type.  You may find that you need to water twice a day. Once your seeds germinate, roots will start to grow reaching for nutrients in the garden soil under the sand trench.

How Do I Know When to Plant Cool Season Vegetables

Cool season crops will all need to be planted at least several weeks before your area’s last frost date. In Florida, we have a nice long growing season, where cool season veggies can be planted in the fall, throughout winter, and into early spring. 

Truth be told, warm-season vegetables like tomatoes, can be grown in the fall as well.  Just be sure to start those early enough to harvest before the first frost of winter.  If not, you’ll have a ton of green tomatoes. Fried green tomatoes, anyone?

Soil Temperatures for Cool Season Vegetables

Most cool-season veggies need a cooler soil temperature to germinate. Mulching your garden soil well will help prevent the soil from getting too hot in the Florida sun. Ideally, soil temperatures need to be between 40 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

Growing Tips for Growing Cool-Season Vegetables in Florida

Not only can mulch help keep the soil temperatures cooler, 50% shade cloth can benefit the Florida winter garden as well.  Cool weather crops can bolt quickly in the hot weather from the Florida sun.  Growing them under some shade cloth helps to keep bolting at bay, especially if your garden is in the Florida, full sun. 

Look for Heat Tolerant Varieties

It’s also a good idea to choose heat-tolerant varieties from locally adapted seeds. Search around and find out what varieties other Florida gardeners are growing.  My friends over at Seed the Stars is a great place to start looking. Additionally, seed catalogs will often have heat tolerant cold season vegetables noted throughout.

Do I Need to Protect Veggies in a Freeze?

Mostly all of the cool season crops can tolerate a little frost.  If the danger of frost is looking like it could be a hard freeze you can always protect your garden with some frost cloth, row cover, even cold frames. As long as you are growing veggies suited for the colder temperatures, having to protect veggies from a hard freeze can be pretty rare in Florida.

When to Plant Cool Season Vegetables in Florida

From September through March, is a great time to get those cool-season veggies in the ground.  If you think it’s too late direct sow seeds, head on over to your favorite nursery and grab some young plants to transplant for a quick winter harvest.

Happy Homesteading & Winter Gardening,

Jenny @ The Grahamstead Family Farm

Jenny and her family have been homesteading for more than two decades. They currently live on a 10-acre farm in Northeast Florida, which they built from the ground up, nine years ago.

On their farm, they grow 100% of their meat and most of their vegetables. With a small herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle, pastured poultry, sheep, and seasonal pigs, they not only meet their family’s meat needs but also sell their surplus to the local community. They are dedicated to sustainable practices like making compost, seed saving, and processing much of their garden and animal harvests at home. You can find Jenny wandering through her garden, making herbal tinctures, preserving food, making bone broth, and one of Jenny’s favorite hobbies, tanning all types of hides.