Balmorhea, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Balmorhea, 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 Balmorhea 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 Balmorhea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Balmorhea — the short answer
Balmorhea, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 328 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 328 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 Balmorhea's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Balmorhea's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Balmorhea
Each reading below is measured for Balmorhea itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBalmorhea runs about 257 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
MeasuredBalmorhea 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 Balmorhea is in
Balmorhea sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Balmorhea's own centroid rather than borrowed from Reeves County.
What Grows in Balmorhea
Every plant below cleared Balmorhea's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Balmorhea?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Balmorhea
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Balmorhea. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORLANDOS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- COUNTRY CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BALMORHEA UNCLES 160201Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JUAN CARRASCO MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DIAMOND CRYOToxics Release Inventory · 4.6 mi
- BALMORHEA IH 10 UNCLES 160204Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- MADERA VALLEY WSCPFAS · 6.5 mi
- PS-52-02-404Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- PS-52-02-4xx (Balmerea)Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- WD-52-01-302Nitrate · 8.9 mi
Measured from Balmorhea'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 Balmorhea.
Total Sites
13
within ~10 miles of Balmorhea
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Balmorhea
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Balmorhea
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Balmorhea
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 Balmorhea average
Your land is one point inside Balmorhea
Everything above resolves to Balmorhea as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 328 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 city 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 Balmorhea Average
Balmorhea Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Balmorhea
- ●One soil character for all of Balmorhea
- ●Frost dates read at Balmorhea's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Balmorhea's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Balmorhea
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Balmorhea, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Balmorhea averages can't show:
We read public map data around Balmorhea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Balmorhea average
How we know this about Balmorhea
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Balmorhea’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Balmorhea
When does frost risk typically end in Balmorhea?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Balmorhea typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Balmorhea?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Balmorhea typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Balmorhea?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Balmorhea sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 5, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Balmorhea?
The federal record around Balmorhea shows 13 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Balmorhea?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Balmorhea's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Balmorhea'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 Balmorhea’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Balmorhea's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 328 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Balmorhea's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Balmorhea's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 19 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Balmorhea, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Balmorhea's boundary and the 328 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Balmorhea's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Balmorhea's 328 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Reeves County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Reeves 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 Reeves County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Balmorhea's 328 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Balmorhea you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 328 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Balmorhea-wide figureread your own land →
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