Comanche County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Comanche County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Comanche 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 Comanche County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Comanche County — the short answer
Comanche County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 600K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~271
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 600K 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 8b is Comanche County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Comanche County's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Comanche County
Across a year, Comanche County accumulates about 5,772 growing degree days above 50°F, about 52 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 116 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 1,126 hours below 45°F, 31 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 Comanche County
Across Comanche County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Chaney, Purves, and Pedernales are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–8.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
29%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Comanche County
The USDA soil survey maps 69% of Comanche County as well drained — but another 30% drains differently: 30% moderately well drained.
Chaney is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Purves (10%) and Pedernales (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 Comanche County
Each reading below is measured for Comanche 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 Comanche County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Comanche County runs about pH 6.7–8.0, 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
MeasuredComanche County runs about 271 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredComanche County 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 Comanche County is in
Comanche County sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Comanche County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Comanche County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 271-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 Comanche County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Comanche County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Comanche County
USGS estimates 49,417 lb of Glyphosate on Comanche County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (17,441 lb) and Acetochlor (11,966 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 Comanche County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Comanche County — 141 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Comanche 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 Comanche County
Closest first, across Comanche County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GUSTINE ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DUDLEY BROTHERS RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COMANCHE COUNTY MININGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SULLYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SIDNEY SERVICE STATONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HIGGINBOTHAMS APPLIANCE WHSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KEG KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BOB SIMPSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF DELEON SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KOONCE CHEVROLET-PONTIAC-BUICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ENERGY KEY LOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LINDAS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Comanche 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 Comanche County.
Total Sites
141
across Comanche County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Comanche County
Severity Distribution
across Comanche County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Comanche County, two things run higher than the national average across Comanche County — CAFO (32 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (98 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Comanche 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 Comanche County average
Your land is one point inside Comanche County
Everything above resolves to Comanche County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 600K 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 Comanche County Average
Comanche County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Comanche County
- ●One soil character for all of Comanche County
- ●Frost dates read at Comanche County's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Comanche County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Comanche County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Comanche County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Comanche County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Comanche County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Comanche County average
How we know this about Comanche 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 Comanche County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Comanche County
When does frost risk typically end in Comanche County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Comanche County typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Comanche County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Comanche County sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 13, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Comanche County?
The federal record around Comanche County shows 141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles 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 Comanche County's scale — its 8b band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Comanche 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 Comanche County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Comanche County's own scale — its own ~271-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 141 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Comanche County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Comanche County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~271-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Comanche CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 141 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Comanche County's boundary and the 600,161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Comanche County sitting wholly inside the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Comanche County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Comanche 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 Comanche County — the ~271 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 Comanche County's 600,161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 141 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 Comanche Countyread your own land →