Bailey County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Bailey County lies within the Texas High Plains / Panhandle and the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bailey County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bailey County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Bailey County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bailey County — the short answer
Bailey County, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 529K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 529K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Bailey County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bailey County's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Bailey County
Across a year, Bailey County accumulates about 4,018 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,806 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 9 of Texas’s 254 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,277 hours below 45°F, 1,182 more than the Texas middle of 1,095. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bailey County
Across Bailey County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Amarillo, Midessa, and Arvana are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.4–8.1, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bailey County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Bailey County as well drained — but another 9% drains differently: 8% excessively drained, 1% poorly drained.
Amarillo is the most extensive named soil at 28% of mapped acres, then Midessa (13%) and Arvana (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bailey County
Each reading below is measured for Bailey County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bailey County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bailey County runs about pH 7.4–8.1, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBailey County runs about 210 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
MeasuredBailey County 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 Bailey County is in
Bailey County sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Bailey County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bailey County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 210-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bailey County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What gets applied to farmland in Bailey County
USGS estimates 192,277 lb of Glyphosate on Bailey County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (39,797 lb) and 2,4-d (32,575 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bailey County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bailey County — 94 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 23 concentrated animal feeding operations. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Bailey County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bailey County
Closest first, across Bailey County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LONGHORN AGUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DALE MIDDLEBROOKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BULA GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- MULESHOE COOPERATIVE GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- NEEDMORE CARDSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- AG AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- RIVERSIDE TERRACORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HUMISTON FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BAILEY COUNTY PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- WARREN FIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CLAY CORNER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- MULESHOE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bailey County'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 Bailey County.
Total Sites
94
across Bailey County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
23 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
across Bailey County
Severity Distribution
across Bailey County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bailey County, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 23 sites across Bailey County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Bailey County
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 Bailey County average
Your land is one point inside Bailey County
Everything above resolves to Bailey County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 529K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bailey County Average
Bailey County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bailey County
- ●One soil character for all of Bailey County
- ●Frost dates read at Bailey County's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bailey County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bailey County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bailey County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bailey County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bailey County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bailey County average
How we know this about Bailey County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bailey County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bailey County
When does frost risk typically end in Bailey County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bailey County 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.
How long is the growing season in Bailey County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bailey County sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 19, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bailey County?
The federal record around Bailey County shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
Everything above is measured at Bailey County's scale — its 7a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bailey County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Texas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bailey County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Bailey County's own scale — its own ~210-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 94 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bailey County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bailey County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bailey CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 94 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Bailey County's boundary and the 529,261 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bailey County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bailey County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bailey County — the ~210 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bailey County's 529,261 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 94 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bailey Countyread your own land →