DeWitt County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
DeWitt County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across DeWitt 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 DeWitt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
DeWitt County — the short answer
DeWitt County, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 307 days between hard freezes, across 582K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~307
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 582K 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 9a is DeWitt County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeWitt County's 307-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in DeWitt County
Across a year, DeWitt County accumulates about 7,391 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,567 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 220 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 292 hours below 45°F, 803 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 DeWitt County
Across DeWitt County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Sarnosa, Tremona, and Leming are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–8.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
37%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across DeWitt County
The USDA soil survey maps 49% of DeWitt County as well drained — but another 51% drains differently: 35% moderately well drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Sarnosa is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Tremona (12%) and Leming (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 DeWitt County
Each reading below is measured for DeWitt 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 DeWitt County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 DeWitt County runs about pH 6.5–8.2, 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
MeasuredDeWitt County runs about 307 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
MeasuredDeWitt County sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 DeWitt County is in
DeWitt County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — East Central Texas Plains (51%) and Texas Blackland Prairies (48%). 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 DeWitt County
We scored all 1,086 plants against DeWitt County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 307-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 DeWitt 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 Jan 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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 DeWitt County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in DeWitt County
USGS estimates 22,344 lb of 2,4-d on DeWitt County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (13,905 lb) and Atrazine (5,923 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 DeWitt County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across DeWitt County — 151 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across DeWitt 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 DeWitt County
Closest first, across DeWitt County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PAPA JOHNSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JACK SCHAEFER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MUELLER AG SUPPLY & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SOUTH YORKTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JIMMIES PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BIG DS GROCERY & MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- S T A WAREHOUSE YARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DEWITT COUNTY ELEC COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ALEXANDER OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- COTTON PATCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SILEE WOFFORDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DAURY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeWitt 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 DeWitt County.
Total Sites
151
across DeWitt County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across DeWitt County
Severity Distribution
across DeWitt County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DeWitt County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 124 sites across DeWitt County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in DeWitt 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 DeWitt County average
Your land is one point inside DeWitt County
Everything above resolves to DeWitt County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 582K 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 DeWitt County Average
DeWitt County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across DeWitt County
- ●One soil character for all of DeWitt County
- ●Frost dates read at DeWitt County's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeWitt County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in DeWitt County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeWitt County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeWitt County averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeWitt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeWitt County average
How we know this about DeWitt 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 DeWitt County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about DeWitt County
When does frost risk typically end in DeWitt County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeWitt County typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in DeWitt County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeWitt County sees about 307 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 24, about 272 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeWitt County?
The federal record around DeWitt County shows 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 DeWitt County's scale — its 9a band and its 307-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeWitt 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 DeWitt County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at DeWitt County's own scale — its own ~307-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 151 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeWitt County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- DeWitt County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~307-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in DeWitt CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 151 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- DeWitt County's boundary and the 581,744 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~307-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions DeWitt County spans, East Central Texas Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in DeWitt County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto DeWitt 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 DeWitt County — the ~307 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 DeWitt County's 581,744 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 151 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 DeWitt Countyread your own land →