Crockett County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Crockett County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Crockett 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 Crockett County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crockett County — the short answer
Crockett County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 1.8M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.8M 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 8a is Crockett County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crockett County's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Crockett County
Across a year, Crockett County accumulates about 5,714 growing degree days above 50°F, about 110 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 107 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 1,292 hours below 45°F, 197 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 Crockett County
Across Crockett County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Ector, Noelke, and Texon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very cobbly clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 8.0–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Crockett County
Ector is the most extensive named soil at 38% of mapped acres, then Noelke (10%) and Texon (6%).
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 Crockett County
Each reading below is measured for Crockett 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 Crockett County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Crockett County runs about pH 8.0–8.2, 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
Season length
MeasuredCrockett County runs about 255 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
MeasuredCrockett County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Crockett County is in
Crockett County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Edwards Plateau (94%) and Chihuahuan Deserts (6%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Crockett County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Crockett County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 255-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 Crockett County?
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 Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Crockett County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Crockett County
USGS estimates 6,017 lb of 2,4-d on Crockett County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (2,423 lb) and Triclopyr (699 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 Crockett County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Crockett County — 50 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Crockett 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 Crockett County
Closest first, across Crockett County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORT LANCASTER STATE HIST SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TXDOT OZONA FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PIONEER OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PIONEER OILCO 113Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARATHON OIL OLSON WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HJ-54-23-108Nitrate · 10.7 mi
- OZONA GAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 11.4 mi
- STRIPES 268Underground Storage Tanks · 11.7 mi
- OZONA FUELLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.7 mi
- TRETOS TIRE AND LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.8 mi
- MANESS KEYSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.8 mi
- THOMPSON J CLEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 11.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crockett 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 Crockett County.
Total Sites
50
across Crockett County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Crockett County
Severity Distribution
across Crockett County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crockett County, two things run higher than the national average across Crockett County — Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (33 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Crockett 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 Crockett County average
Your land is one point inside Crockett County
Everything above resolves to Crockett County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.8M 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 Crockett County Average
Crockett County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Crockett County
- ●One soil character for all of Crockett County
- ●Frost dates read at Crockett County's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crockett County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Crockett County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crockett County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crockett County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crockett County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crockett County average
How we know this about Crockett 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 Crockett County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Crockett County
When does frost risk typically end in Crockett County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crockett County typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
How long is the growing season in Crockett County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crockett County sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 4, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crockett County?
The federal record around Crockett County is a meaningful one — 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Crockett County's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crockett 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 Crockett County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Crockett County's own scale — its own ~255-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 50 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crockett County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crockett County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Crockett CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 50 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
- Crockett County's boundary and the 1,796,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Crockett County spans, Edwards Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Crockett County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Crockett 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 Crockett County — the ~255 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 Crockett County's 1,796,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 50 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 Crockett Countyread your own land →