Fisher County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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
Fisher County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Fisher 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 Fisher County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fisher County — the short answer
Fisher County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 575K 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 575K 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 Fisher County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fisher County's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Fisher County
Across a year, Fisher County accumulates about 5,601 growing degree days above 50°F, about 223 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 83 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 1,443 hours below 45°F, 348 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 Fisher County
Across Fisher County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Paducah, Woodward, and Wichita are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
47%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Fisher County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Fisher County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% excessively drained.
Paducah is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Woodward (11%) and Wichita (10%).
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 Fisher County
Each reading below is measured for Fisher 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 Fisher County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Fisher County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, 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
MeasuredFisher County runs about 258 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
MeasuredFisher 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 Fisher County is in
Fisher County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (89%) and Southwestern Tablelands (11%). 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 Fisher County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Fisher County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 258-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 Fisher County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 21 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Fisher County
USGS estimates 134,599 lb of Glyphosate on Fisher County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (32,812 lb) and 2,4-d (22,795 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 Fisher County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Fisher County — 41 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Fisher County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Fisher County
Closest first, across Fisher County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAMLIN GAS PROCESSING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BRAZOS TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ROBY 66 CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JEFFREY COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CARRIKER FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MCCALLEY R L435200Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GOLD BOND BULDG PROUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HAMLIN AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SDHPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PRECINCT 1 COUNTY BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ROBY TX RCLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ROBY FINA STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fisher 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 Fisher County.
Severity Distribution
across Fisher County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fisher County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 38 sites across Fisher 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 Fisher 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 Fisher County average
Your land is one point inside Fisher County
Everything above resolves to Fisher County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 575K 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 Fisher County Average
Fisher County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fisher County
- ●One soil character for all of Fisher County
- ●Frost dates read at Fisher County's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fisher County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Fisher County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fisher County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fisher County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fisher County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fisher County average
How we know this about Fisher 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 Fisher County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Fisher County
When does frost risk typically end in Fisher County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fisher 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 Fisher County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fisher County sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 7, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fisher County?
The federal record around Fisher County is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Fisher County's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fisher 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 Fisher County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Fisher County's own scale — its own ~258-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 41 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fisher County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fisher County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Fisher CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 41 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Fisher County's boundary and the 575,328 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Fisher County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Fisher 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 Fisher County — the ~258 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 Fisher County's 575,328 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 41 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 Fisher Countyread your own land →