Alba, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alba, 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 Alba 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 Alba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alba — the short answer
Alba, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 674 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 674 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Wood County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Alba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alba's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alba
Each reading below is measured for Alba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlba runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Wood County, the closest normal to Alba) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlba sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Alba is in
Alba sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alba's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wood County is mostly South Central Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Alba
Every plant below cleared Alba's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alba?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Alba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UX-34-11-801Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- UX-34-11-501Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- SHORTYS RESORT & MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- UX-34-11-202Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- CUZZINS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- LAKE FORK MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- ZS-34-20-202Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- ZS-34-12-201Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- LUNKER LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- KELLYS KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- UX-34-11-204Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- SABINE RIVER AUTHORITY-LAKE FORK DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alba'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 Alba.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Alba
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alba, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Alba — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Alba
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 Alba average
Your land is one point inside Alba
Everything above resolves to Alba as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 674 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wood County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Alba Average
Alba Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Alba
- ●One soil character for all of Alba
- ●Frost dates read at Alba's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alba's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alba, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alba average
How we know this about Alba
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 Wood County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Alba
When does frost risk typically end in Alba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alba typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Alba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alba typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alba sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 13, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alba?
The federal record around Alba is a meaningful one — 91 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.9 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alba?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alba's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alba'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 Alba’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alba's own scale — the 674 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alba, the closest Nitrate record about 2.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alba's boundary and the 674 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alba sits in the East Central Texas Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alba has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wood County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alba's 674 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wood 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 Wood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alba's 674 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 674 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.9 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 Alba-wide figureread your own land →
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