What were the important staple crops of the southern colonies?

The answer is "tobacco, rice and indigo".

Texas’ gulf coastal plains are the western extension of the coastal plain extending from the atlantic ocean to beyond the rio grande. its characteristic rolling to hilly surface covered with a heavy growth of pine and hardwoods extends into east texas. in the increasingly arid west, however, its forests become secondary in nature, consisting largely of post oaks and, farther west, prairies and brushlands.