Acala, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Acala, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Acala lot. 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 Acala — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Acala — the short answer
Acala, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 8a is Acala's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Acala's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Acala
Each reading below is measured for Acala itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAcala runs about 259 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
MeasuredAcala sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Acala is in
Acala sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Acala's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hudspeth County.
What Grows in Acala
Every plant below cleared Acala's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Acala?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Acala
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Acala. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DANS SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- FT HANCOCK MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- E & A ENERGYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- LOMA VISTA DAIRYCAFO · 9.6 mi
Measured from Acala'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 Acala.
Total Sites
5
within ~10 miles of Acala
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Acala
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Acala
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 Acala average
Your land is one point inside Acala
Everything above resolves to Acala as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Acala Average
Acala Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Acala
- ●One soil character for all of Acala
- ●Frost dates read at Acala's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Acala's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Acala
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Acala, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Acala averages can't show:
We read public map data around Acala — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Acala average
How we know this about Acala
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Acala’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Acala
When does frost risk typically end in Acala?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Acala typically lands around Mar 3, 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 Mar 24.
When is the first frost in Acala?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Acala typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Acala?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Acala sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 3, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Acala?
The federal record around Acala is light — 5 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (4), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Acala?
From about Oct 18 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Acala's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Acala's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Acala’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Acala's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,819 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Acala's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Acala's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 3 and Nov 17 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Acala, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Acala's boundary and the 1,819 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Acala's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Acala's 1,819 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hudspeth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hudspeth County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hudspeth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Acala's 1,819 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Acala you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,819 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Acala-wide figureread your own land →
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