Channelview, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Channelview, 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 Channelview 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 Channelview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Channelview — the short answer
Channelview, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Harris County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Channelview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Channelview's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Channelview
Each reading below is measured for Channelview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChannelview runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Harris County, the closest normal to Channelview) — 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
MeasuredChannelview sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Channelview is in
Channelview sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Channelview's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harris County.
What Grows in Channelview
Every plant below cleared Channelview's own zone 9b and its 323-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Channelview?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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 Channelview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Channelview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INTRA SERVICESBrownfields · 950 ft
- RW JAYNES LLCBrownfields · 950 ft
- LEGACEE INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SERVBrownfields · 950 ft
- HARRIS COUNTY WCID 21PFAS · 1300 ft
- HARRIS COUNTY FWSD 6PFAS · 1300 ft
- HARRIS COUNTY MUD 53PFAS · 1300 ft
- HARRIS COUNTY FWSD 47PFAS · 1300 ft
- HARRIS COUNTY WCID 84PFAS · 1300 ft
- ENERPIPEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GOODSON AND SON TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- AVE D PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SHADY BAYOU MOBIL HOME PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Channelview'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 Channelview.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Channelview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Channelview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Channelview, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Channelview — Toxics Release Inventory (275 sites) and PFAS (24 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Channelview
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 Channelview average
Your land is one point inside Channelview
Everything above resolves to Channelview as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Harris 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 Channelview Average
Channelview Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Channelview
- ●One soil character for all of Channelview
- ●Frost dates read at Channelview's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Channelview's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Channelview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Channelview, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Channelview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Channelview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Channelview average
How we know this about Channelview
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 Harris 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 Channelview
When does frost risk typically end in Channelview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Channelview typically lands around Jan 28, 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 Feb 18.
When is the first frost in Channelview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Channelview typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Channelview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Channelview sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Dec 3, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Channelview?
The federal record around Channelview runs heavier than most — 2,184 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,161), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Channelview?
From about Nov 17 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 Dec 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 Dec 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Channelview's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Channelview'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 Channelview’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Channelview's own scale — the 9,222 acres it covers and 2,184 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Channelview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,184 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Channelview, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Channelview's boundary and the 9,222 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Channelview's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Channelview has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Harris County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Channelview's 9,222 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harris 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 Harris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Channelview's 9,222 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Channelview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,222 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Channelview-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasChannelview sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides