Culberson County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Culberson County lies within the Trans-Pecos / Big Bend — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Culberson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Culberson 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 Culberson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Culberson County — the short answer
Culberson County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 2.4M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.4M 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 Culberson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Culberson County's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Culberson County
Across a year, Culberson County accumulates about 4,652 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,172 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 33 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 1,451 hours below 45°F, 356 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 Culberson County
Across Culberson County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Bissett, Beach, and Culberspeth are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very gravelly loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.8–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Culberson County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Culberson County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained, 1% excessively drained.
Bissett is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Beach (10%) and Culberspeth (8%).
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 Culberson County
Each reading below is measured for Culberson 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 Culberson 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 Culberson County runs about pH 7.8–8.2, 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
MeasuredCulberson County runs about 250 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
MeasuredCulberson 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 Culberson County is in
Culberson County sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Culberson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Culberson County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 250-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 Culberson County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Culberson County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Culberson County
USGS estimates 5,926 lb of Glyphosate on Culberson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (4,788 lb) and 2,4-d (1,050 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 Culberson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Culberson County — 94 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Culberson 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 Culberson County
Closest first, across Culberson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OIL WELL GULF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PINE SPRINGS R AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOLIDAY CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VAN HORN PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VAN HORN STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VAN HORN WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LOVES COUNTRY STORE 234Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- OASIS TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NICKEL CREEK EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KENT MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LPL VAN HORN INVESTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VAN HORN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Culberson 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 Culberson County.
Total Sites
94
across Culberson County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Culberson County
Severity Distribution
across Culberson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Culberson County, two things run higher than the national average across Culberson County — Mining (24 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Culberson 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 Culberson County average
Your land is one point inside Culberson County
Everything above resolves to Culberson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.4M 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 Culberson County Average
Culberson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Culberson County
- ●One soil character for all of Culberson County
- ●Frost dates read at Culberson County's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Culberson County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Culberson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Culberson County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Culberson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Culberson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Culberson County average
How we know this about Culberson 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 Culberson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Culberson County
When does frost risk typically end in Culberson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Culberson County typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
How long is the growing season in Culberson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Culberson County sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 4, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Culberson County?
The federal record around Culberson County shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), 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 Culberson County's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Culberson 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 Culberson County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Culberson County's own scale — its own ~250-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
- Culberson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Culberson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Culberson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 94 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
- Culberson County's boundary and the 2,439,778 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Culberson County sitting wholly inside the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Culberson County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Culberson 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 Culberson County — the ~250 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 Culberson County's 2,439,778 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 Culberson Countyread your own land →