Cactus, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cactus, 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 Cactus 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 Cactus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cactus — the short answer
Cactus, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 7a is Cactus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cactus's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cactus
Each reading below is measured for Cactus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCactus runs about 209 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
MeasuredCactus 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 Cactus is in
Cactus sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cactus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Moore County.
What Grows in Cactus
Every plant below cleared Cactus's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cactus?
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 Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Cactus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cactus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S. B. FOOT TANNING COToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- CITY WAREHOUSE & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GRUBS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- AMERICAN ZINCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SWIFT BEEF CACTUS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- SWIFT BEEF CACTUS PLANTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CACTUS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF CACTUSPFAS · 0.7 mi
- TT-03-57-412Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- CACTUS FEEDYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CACTUS FEEDYARDCAFO · 1.0 mi
- GRUBS MARKET 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cactus'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 Cactus.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Cactus
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cactus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cactus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cactus, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cactus — CAFO (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cactus
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 Cactus average
Your land is one point inside Cactus
Everything above resolves to Cactus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Cactus Average
Cactus Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cactus
- ●One soil character for all of Cactus
- ●Frost dates read at Cactus's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cactus's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cactus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cactus, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cactus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cactus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cactus average
How we know this about Cactus
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 Cactus’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 Cactus
When does frost risk typically end in Cactus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cactus typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Cactus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cactus typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cactus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cactus sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cactus?
The federal record around Cactus is a meaningful one — 40 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Cactus?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cactus's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cactus'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 Cactus’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cactus's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,364 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cactus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cactus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cactus, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cactus's boundary and the 1,364 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cactus's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cactus's 1,364 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Moore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Moore 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 Moore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cactus's 1,364 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cactus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,364 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Cactus-wide figureread your own land →