Corsicana, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Corsicana, 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 Corsicana 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 Corsicana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Corsicana — the short answer
Corsicana, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Navarro County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Corsicana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Corsicana's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Corsicana
Each reading below is measured for Corsicana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCorsicana runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Navarro County, the closest normal to Corsicana) — 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
MeasuredCorsicana 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 Corsicana is in
Corsicana sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Corsicana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navarro County.
What Grows in Corsicana
Every plant below cleared Corsicana's own zone 8b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Corsicana?
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 Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Corsicana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Corsicana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAPPY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- OIL CITY IRON WORKS INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- MOBIL PIPE LINE CORSICANA TANK FARMBrownfields · 2300 ft
- CITY OF CORSICANAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- JOHNNY SIRMAN AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- OLD MOBIL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CHILLY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- OIL CITY IRON WORKSToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- HERVEY MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- R M JONESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ALON 110Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- HOUSLEY HAROLD LUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Corsicana'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 Corsicana.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Corsicana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
24 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Corsicana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Corsicana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Corsicana, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Corsicana — Toxics Release Inventory (24 sites) and PFAS (3 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 Corsicana
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 Corsicana average
Your land is one point inside Corsicana
Everything above resolves to Corsicana as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Navarro County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Corsicana Average
Corsicana Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Corsicana
- ●One soil character for all of Corsicana
- ●Frost dates read at Corsicana's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Corsicana's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Corsicana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Corsicana, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Corsicana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Corsicana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Corsicana average
How we know this about Corsicana
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 Navarro 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 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 Corsicana
When does frost risk typically end in Corsicana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Corsicana typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Corsicana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Corsicana typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Corsicana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Corsicana sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 18, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Corsicana?
The federal record around Corsicana is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Corsicana?
From about Nov 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 Dec 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Corsicana's scale — its 8b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Corsicana'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 Corsicana’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Corsicana's own scale — the 14,710 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Corsicana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Corsicana, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Corsicana's boundary and the 14,710 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Corsicana's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Corsicana has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Navarro County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Corsicana's 14,710 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navarro County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navarro 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 Navarro County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Corsicana's 14,710 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Corsicana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,710 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Corsicana-wide figureread your own land →
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