What to plant in January depends almost entirely on how many weeks you are from your last spring frost. In most of the country, January is the start of indoor seed starting for the slowest crops and the middle of the winter sowing season, not a month for the outdoor garden. From zone 9 south it is a real planting month: peas, spinach, lettuce and radishes go in the ground, tomatoes and peppers are started indoors, and in zone 10b and warmer the spring garden is already being transplanted.
A useful way to see it: of the 100 largest US cities in our NOAA frost data, 15 reach their median last freeze in January, from Scottsdale and Fremont on January 6 to New Orleans on January 30, and another 18 do not freeze at all in a typical year. For those 33 cities, January is spring. For Minneapolis, with a last frost in mid May, it is four months away.
Check your zone and last frost first
Every date below is counted from a zone’s average last frost. Your ZIP code gives you your own zone and frost dates, which can be a week or two off the zone average.
Enter your US ZIP code for your USDA zone, frost dates & planting calendar.
What to plant in January, by zone
| Zone | Last frost | Start indoors in January | Sow or plant outdoors in January |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 to 6 | May 15 to Apr 15 | Nothing yet (onions from Feb 4 in 6b, Feb 9 in 6a) | Winter sow hardy seed in jugs all month |
| 7a | Apr 10 | Onions Jan 30 | Winter sow hardy seed all month |
| 7b | Apr 3 | Onions Jan 23 | Winter sow hardy seed all month |
| 8a | Mar 25 | Onions Jan 14; peppers, eggplant, parsley Jan 28 | Winter sow hardy seed through Jan 28 |
| 8b | Mar 15 | Onions Jan 4; peppers, eggplant, parsley Jan 18; tomatoes Jan 25 | Winter sow hardy seed through Jan 18 |
| 9a | Mar 1 | Peppers, eggplant, parsley Jan 4; tomatoes Jan 11; broccoli, kale, basil Jan 18 | Peas and spinach from Jan 25 |
| 9b | Feb 15 | Broccoli, kale, basil Jan 4; lettuce Jan 18; cucumbers, squash, pumpkins Jan 25 | Garlic to Jan 7; peas, spinach Jan 11; lettuce, radishes Jan 18; kale, beets Jan 25 |
| 10a | Jan 31 | Lettuce Jan 3; cucumbers, zucchini, squash, pumpkins Jan 10 | Garlic to Jan 17; lettuce, radishes Jan 3; kale, beets Jan 10; carrots, potatoes, cilantro Jan 17; transplants of broccoli, kale, lettuce, onions Jan 17 |
| 10b | Jan 15 | Not needed | Transplants of broccoli, kale, lettuce, onions and carrots, potatoes, cilantro from Jan 1; beans, corn Jan 22; tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash Jan 29 |
| 11 and up | none | Not needed | The full cool-season list through Jan 31, plus tomatoes, peppers and beans |
The indoor dates count back from the last frost by the weeks each crop needs: onions 10 weeks, peppers, eggplant and parsley 8, tomatoes 7, broccoli, kale and basil 6, lettuce 4 and the squash family 3. That is the method in when to start seeds indoors by zone. Outdoor sowing dates count the other way for hardy crops (peas and spinach go in five weeks before the last frost, lettuce and radishes four, kale and beets three), tender transplants go out two weeks after it, and beans and corn are sown a week after it. The winter sowing cut-offs are the hardy-seed dates from the winter sowing guide.
Zones 3 to 6: winter sowing, seed orders and patience
Nothing you plant outdoors in January grows before spring, and nothing in the vegetable garden should be started indoors yet. The first indoor sowing of the year in zone 6a is onions around February 9, and in zone 5a around February 19. A tomato sown in January in zone 5 would be a pot-bound, leggy plant two months before it could go outside.
Winter sowing is the one real planting job. Hardy seed sown in milk jugs or clear totes and left outside gets the cold, moist weeks that many perennials and native plants need, then germinates on its own when spring warms the jug. January is the heart of the season in zones 3 to 6: the cut-off for hardy seed is around February 18 in zone 6b and not until March 20 in 3a. Spinach, kale, lettuce, broccoli, poppies, larkspur, milkweed and coneflowers all work. Tender crops do not.
Light is the other constraint. Plants barely grow below about ten hours of daylight, and the northern half of the country is under that until late January or February. Philadelphia and Denver pass ten hours on about January 28, Chicago on February 1, Boston on February 2, Minneapolis on February 7 and Seattle not until February 11. That is why seed packets for the north say “start indoors in February or March” even for the toughest crops, and why a cold frame planted in January sits still for weeks.
What zones 3 to 6 can do in January is order seed before popular varieties sell out, test old seed (ten seeds in a damp paper towel, kept warm for a week: seven sprouts or more is fine), and get the seed starting setup ready so that it is working when the first onions go in.
Zones 7 and 8: the first indoor starts
This is where January turns into seed-starting month. Onions are first because they need ten weeks under lights: January 4 in zone 8b, January 14 in 8a, January 23 in 7b and January 30 in 7a. Start them thickly in a tray, give them 14 to 16 hours of light, and trim the tops to about three inches whenever they flop over.
In zone 8 the nightshades follow. Peppers, eggplant and parsley go in around January 18 in zone 8b and January 28 in 8a, and tomatoes around January 25 in 8b. Peppers and eggplant germinate slowly and unevenly in a cool house: a heat mat that holds the soil near 80°F turns a two-to-three-week wait into seven to ten days. Atlanta (8a) and Dallas (8b) are the big cities in this band.
Outdoors, zone 8 can keep winter sowing hardy seed until January 18 (8b) or January 28 (8a), and zone 7 through early to mid February. Kale, collards and cabbage set out last fall usually come through a zone 7 or 8 winter and keep producing, and garlic planted in October or November should be showing green tips: leave the mulch on.
Zone 9: outdoor sowing starts, and tomatoes go in indoors
Zone 9a’s last frost is around March 1 and zone 9b’s around February 15, which puts both in the thick of it. In 9a, January is for indoor starts: peppers, eggplant and parsley about January 4, tomatoes about January 11, and broccoli, kale and basil about January 18. The first outdoor sowings, peas and spinach, go in about January 25.
Zone 9b is two weeks further along. Peas and spinach can be sown outside from about January 11, lettuce and radishes from January 18 and kale and beets from January 25. Indoors, broccoli, kale and basil start about January 4, lettuce about January 18, and the squash family (cucumbers, zucchini, winter squash, pumpkins) about January 25, timed to go out two weeks after the mid-February frost. Pre-chilled garlic can still go in through about January 7.
Houston (9b) and Austin and San Antonio (9a) are in this band, and their NOAA median last freezes are February 13, February 20 and February 26, in line with the zone averages. Sacramento, Fresno and Bakersfield are also 9b on the map but freeze for the last time much earlier, January 12 to 17, which makes the Central Valley closer to zone 10a for spring planting. This is the kind of gap a zone alone does not tell you; your city’s frost date does.
Zone 10: spring planting
Zone 10a’s average last frost is January 31 and 10b’s January 15, so January is the spring transition. In 10a, sow lettuce and radishes outside from early January, kale and beets around January 10, and carrots, potatoes and cilantro around January 17, when broccoli, kale, lettuce and onion transplants also go out. Start cucumbers, zucchini and squash indoors around January 10 for a mid-February transplant.
In 10b the whole calendar moves up: cool-season transplants and carrots, potatoes and cilantro from January 1, beans and corn around January 22, and tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and squash transplants from about January 29. Planting tomatoes this early is the point in 10b: they need to set fruit before night temperatures stay above about 75°F in late spring, when most varieties stop setting.
Orlando (10a) is a useful reality check. Its median first freeze at the airport is January 10 and its median last freeze January 25, but it freezes at all in only about 61% of years, so most Januarys pass without one. Keep a frost cloth handy for the night that does come, and do not set out tomatoes until the forecast is clear.
Zone 11 and warmer: the best month of the year
South Florida, the Keys, Hawaii and Puerto Rico are in their dry, mild season. Lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, kale, carrots, beets, radishes, peas and cilantro all go in through the end of January. Tomatoes, peppers and beans planted now fruit before the heat and the rains return in late spring, and this is the one season when slicing tomatoes set reliably in zone 11. The zone 11a page has the year-round calendar, and Hawaii’s planting rhythm (12a and 12b for most of the state) is covered on the zone 12b page.
What not to plant in January
Tender crops outdoors anywhere a frost is still ahead. Zone 9b’s average last frost is mid-February, and a freeze in early March is not unusual. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, squash and basil wait until two weeks after the last frost, which in zone 9 is late February or March.
Spring vegetables indoors north of zone 7. Starting too early is the most common seed-starting mistake there is. A seedling that outgrows its pot before it can go outside stalls, gets leggy and often does worse than one started three weeks later. Count back from your own last frost date, or use the last frost date guide, and hold off until the date comes.
Store-bought garlic in warm zones without chilling. In zones 9 and 10, unchilled cloves grow leaves and make a single round bulb. If you missed the December window, the December planting guide has the zone-by-zone rules, and in zone 8 and colder the next good garlic planting is October.
Plan the rest of the year now
January is the month to lay out the season. Mark your last frost on a calendar and count back the weeks for each crop you plan to start. Decide where each family goes this year using the crop rotation chart, since keeping tomatoes, peppers, eggplant and potatoes out of last year’s nightshade bed does more against blight than any spray. And look up your zone’s planting calendar for the dates that come after this month, from the first outdoor sowings to the fall crops.