Colorado Acres, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Colorado Acres, 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 Colorado Acres 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 Colorado Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Colorado Acres — the short answer
Colorado Acres, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Webb County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Colorado Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colorado Acres's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Colorado Acres
Each reading below is measured for Colorado Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsColorado Acres runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Webb County, the closest normal to Colorado Acres) — 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
MeasuredColorado Acres 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 Colorado Acres is in
Colorado Acres sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Colorado Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webb County.
What Grows in Colorado Acres
Every plant below cleared Colorado Acres's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Colorado Acres?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 25 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Colorado Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Colorado Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YZ-85-30-501Nitrate · 6.8 mi
Measured from Colorado Acres'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 Colorado Acres.
Total Sites
2
within ~10 miles of Colorado Acres
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Colorado Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Colorado Acres
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 Colorado Acres average
Your land is one point inside Colorado Acres
Everything above resolves to Colorado Acres as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Webb 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 Colorado Acres Average
Colorado Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Colorado Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Colorado Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Colorado Acres's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colorado Acres's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Colorado Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colorado Acres, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colorado Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colorado Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colorado Acres average
How we know this about Colorado Acres
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 Webb 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 Colorado Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Colorado Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colorado Acres typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Colorado Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Colorado Acres 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 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Colorado Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colorado Acres sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 3, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colorado Acres?
The federal record around Colorado Acres is light — 2 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (2), the nearest Nitrate record about 6.8 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 Colorado Acres?
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 Colorado Acres's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colorado Acres'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 Colorado Acres’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Colorado Acres's own scale — the 1,882 acres it covers and 2 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colorado Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Colorado Acres, the closest Nitrate record about 6.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Colorado Acres's boundary and the 1,882 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Colorado Acres's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Colorado Acres has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Webb County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Colorado Acres's 1,882 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webb 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 Webb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Colorado Acres's 1,882 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Colorado Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,882 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 6.8 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 Colorado Acres-wide figureread your own land →