Texas County, in Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Texas County lies within the Ozarks — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Texas County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Texas County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Texas County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Texas County — the short answer
Texas County, Missouri: USDA zone 7a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 753K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 753K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Texas County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Texas County's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Texas County
Across a year, Texas County accumulates about 3,717 growing degree days above 50°F, about 36 fewer than the middle Missouri county — ahead of 52 of Missouri’s 115 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Texas County
Across Texas County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Poynor, Mano, and Bender are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a very gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.9–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Texas County
The USDA soil survey maps 60% of Texas County as moderately well drained — but another 40% drains differently: 26% well drained, 11% somewhat excessively drained.
Poynor is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Mano (12%) and Bender (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Texas County
Each reading below is measured for Texas County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Texas County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Texas County runs about pH 4.9–5.8, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredTexas County runs about 211 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTexas County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Texas County is in
Texas County sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Texas County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Texas County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 211-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile.
Is it too late to plant in Texas County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Texas County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Texas County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 303 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle10 documented records
- monarch butterfly176 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Texas County
USGS estimates 51,152 lb of 2,4-d on Texas County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (5,828 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (1,392 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Texas County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Texas County — 153 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Texas County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Texas County
Closest first, across Texas County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARRAH'S MUFFLER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TEXAS COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MURPHY OIL #6864Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #166Brownfields · 1300 ft
- HOUSTON HOME CENTER INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- T30N R09W 18ABD01Nitrate · 1700 ft
- SPEED CLEAN CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- T30N R09W 07DBA1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- CARL HONEYCUTT CHEV-OLDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ROMINES MOTOR CO INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- FARMERS EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CITY OF HOUSTON MAINTENANCE SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Texas County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Texas County.
Total Sites
153
across Texas County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Texas County
Severity Distribution
across Texas County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Texas County, two things run higher than the national average across Texas County — Superfund (4 sites) and Nitrate (48 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Texas County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Texas County average
Your land is one point inside Texas County
Everything above resolves to Texas County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 753K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Texas County Average
Texas County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Texas County
- ●One soil character for all of Texas County
- ●Frost dates read at Texas County's scale: Mar 31 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Texas County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Texas County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Texas County, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Texas County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Texas County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Texas County average
How we know this about Texas County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Texas County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Texas County
When does frost risk typically end in Texas County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Texas County typically lands around Mar 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Apr 21.
How long is the growing season in Texas County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Texas County sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 14, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Texas County?
The federal record around Texas County is a meaningful one — 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Texas County's scale — its 7a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Texas County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Missouri's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Texas County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Texas County's own scale — its own ~211-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 153 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Texas County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Texas County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Texas CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 153 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Texas County's boundary and the 753,450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Texas County sitting wholly inside the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Texas County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Texas County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Texas County — the ~211 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Texas County's 753,450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 153 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Texas Countyread your own land →