Cameron County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Cameron County lies within the Rio Grande Valley and the Gulf Coast — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cameron County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cameron 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 Cameron County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cameron County — the short answer
Cameron County, Texas: USDA zone 10a, about 335 days between hard freezes, across 571K acres.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~335
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 571K 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 10a is Cameron County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cameron County's 335-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Cameron County
Across a year, Cameron County accumulates about 8,940 growing degree days above 50°F, about 3,116 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 251 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 0 hours below 45°F, 1,095 fewer 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 Cameron County
Across Cameron County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Laredo, Harlingen, and Raymondville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
21%
Hydric soils
27%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cameron County
The USDA soil survey maps 28% of Cameron County as moderately well drained — but another 53% drains differently: 25% well drained, 16% poorly drained.
Laredo is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Harlingen (9%) and Raymondville (9%).
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 Cameron County
Each reading below is measured for Cameron 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 Cameron County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Cameron County runs about pH 8.2, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 27% of Cameron County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCameron County runs about 335 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Cameron County is in
Cameron County sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Cameron County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cameron County's own USDA zone 10a and its own 335-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 Cameron County?
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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 23 — 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.
Documented around Cameron County
- monarch butterfly33 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cameron County
USGS estimates 157,147 lb of Glyphosate on Cameron County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (64,248 lb) and Metolachlor-s (49,802 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 Cameron County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cameron County — 1,009 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Cameron County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Cameron County
Closest first, across Cameron County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MENDOZA GROCERY & SSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SALINAS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SCOGIN PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN LABORATORIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40744Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5282Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- CORNER STORE 1517Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LUIS ROMEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- TONYS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 2765Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- A & A AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 2765Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cameron 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 Cameron County.
Total Sites
1,009
across Cameron County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Cameron County
Severity Distribution
across Cameron County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cameron County, two things run higher than the national average across Cameron County — Underground Storage Tanks (744 sites) and PFAS (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Cameron 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 Cameron County average
Your land is one point inside Cameron County
Everything above resolves to Cameron County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 571K 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 Cameron County Average
Cameron County Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Cameron County
- ●One soil character for all of Cameron County
- ●Frost dates read at Cameron County's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cameron County's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cameron County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cameron County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cameron County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cameron County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cameron County average
How we know this about Cameron 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 Cameron County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cameron County
When does frost risk typically end in Cameron County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cameron County typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Cameron County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cameron County sees about 335 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 9, about 300 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cameron County?
The federal record around Cameron County is a meaningful one — 1,009 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (744), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Cameron County's scale — its 10a band and its 335-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cameron 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 Cameron County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cameron County's own scale — its own ~335-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,009 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cameron County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cameron County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~335-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cameron CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,009 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cameron County's boundary and the 570,701 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~335-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cameron County sitting wholly inside the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cameron County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cameron 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 Cameron County — the ~335 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 Cameron County's 570,701 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,009 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 Cameron Countyread your own land →