Direct Seed Planting Dates...

According to this website (specific to Texas)

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/fallgarden/falldirect.html

It says I am in Region 3 and should direct seed my tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers July 1st. Will the oppressive July heat kill my little seedlings when they start to appear?

I am planning on adding to my garden for the fall so I am trying to plan ahead and decide on what seeds I need and gather materials for additional boxes and mel's mix.

Also, how many people start their tomatoes and peppers from seed and with what results? I have been reading here on the forums and seem to see a varied response on that one.

As I understand it, seeds need heat to germinate so sowing seeds in summer is a good thing. The plants have the heat they need to get started and by the time they get bigger and require less heat, the days should be getting cooler in the fall.

I've not tried it, so I'm not sure. I know our local Master Gardener has informed me that in Maine, our cool-weather crops like broccoli and cauliflower, do exceptionally well starting from seed in the garden in the summer. They love the cool falls.
Maybe its the same for your warm-weather crops in the south.

We've got several TX growers here. They should have a definite answer for you.

I haven't direct seeded my tomatoes and peppers, but a lot of that for me is that I have a tendency to forget to get out there often enough to keep the top of the soil moist enough days in a row for them to germinate. Direct seeded plants should do fine with the heat as long as you water them often enough. They should do better than transplants, actually, other than the fact that they don't have anything to spare, so you have to watch closely.
Does that make sense?
I also have a certain phobia of direct seeding small seeds, lol. Part of that stems from having little helpers who may dump a bucket of water on a square at any given time.
Shade cloth wouldn't hurt, either.

I started both tomatoes and peppers from seed this spring with excellent results. Indoors, though. I germinated them in a little multi-cell greenhouse thing, then scooped them out as soon as they came up because I didn't have a light source for them. I put them in yogurt containers, styrofoam cups, whatever I had on hand, and kept them in a sunny window. I made the mistake of planting 4 tomato seeds for each 1 that I needed and almost every single one survived.

elliephant, my radar looked like you may have gotten some rain last night, did you get any at all?

LOL...not a drop. DH did call me this morning to tell me he saw some clouds as he was driving to work...yeah, that was a big enough surprise to call me before I was up.

Same here, we had lots of clouds and wind but not a drop of rain.

Use heat tolerant varieties that work for your region for the "fall" season planting date. I couldn't find a list of variety recommendations on that website, so you might have to do some searching. Like we get the fall season along the gulf coast...

I live in the New Orleans area and the list below is what the LSU agcenter tells us are tried and true varieties for me. Your area might be completely different unless you also get into the 100+ degree temps and are very humid(say 95 degree actual temperature with the humidity adding about 10 degrees to that). I think, looking at that map, your weather might be very close to mine. I'd do some research to make sure though.

Heat Tolerant: Florida 91, Phoenix, Sun Leaper, Sun Chaser, Sunmaster, Solar Set, Heatwave II, Solar Fire, Talladega.