Hockley County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Hockley County lies within the Texas High Plains / Panhandle and the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hockley County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hockley 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 Hockley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hockley County — the short answer
Hockley County, Texas: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 581K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 581K 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 7b is Hockley County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hockley County's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hockley County
Across a year, Hockley County accumulates about 4,427 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,397 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 28 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 1,953 hours below 45°F, 858 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 Hockley County
Across Hockley County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Amarillo, Acuff, and Portales are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hockley County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Hockley County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% poorly drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Amarillo is the most extensive named soil at 47% of mapped acres, then Acuff (18%) and Portales (7%).
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 Hockley County
Each reading below is measured for Hockley 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 Hockley 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 Hockley County runs about pH 7.5–7.9, 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
MeasuredHockley County runs about 231 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
MeasuredHockley County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Hockley County is in
Hockley County sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Hockley County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hockley County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 231-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 Hockley 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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Hockley County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hockley County
USGS estimates 680,010 lb of Glyphosate on Hockley County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (139,793 lb) and 2,4-d (70,653 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 Hockley County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hockley County — 228 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites. 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 Hockley 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 Hockley County
Closest first, across Hockley County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOWELL SCHLUMBERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LEVELLAND GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HOCKLEY COUNTY COOPERATIVE GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ROPESVILLE MICROWAVE TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- OPDYKE FARMERS COOPERATIVE GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- EDWARDS TRANSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- AMOCO PROD MALLET C02 PITUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- AMOCO SLAUGHTER GAS PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- TRIANGLE GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LEVELLAND VEGETABLE OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- NATIONAL PRODUCTION SYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- EDDINS WALCHER KEY PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hockley 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 Hockley County.
Sources Checked
across Hockley County
Severity Distribution
across Hockley County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hockley County, two things run higher than the national average across Hockley County — Underground Storage Tanks (170 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hockley 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 Hockley County average
Your land is one point inside Hockley County
Everything above resolves to Hockley County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 581K 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 Hockley County Average
Hockley County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hockley County
- ●One soil character for all of Hockley County
- ●Frost dates read at Hockley County's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hockley County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hockley County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hockley County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hockley County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hockley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hockley County average
How we know this about Hockley 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 Hockley County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hockley County
When does frost risk typically end in Hockley County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hockley County typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
How long is the growing season in Hockley County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hockley County sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 28, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hockley County?
The federal record around Hockley County is a meaningful one — 228 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hockley County's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hockley 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 Hockley County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hockley County's own scale — its own ~231-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 228 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hockley County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hockley County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hockley CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 228 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hockley County's boundary and the 581,370 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hockley County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hockley County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hockley 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 Hockley County — the ~231 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 Hockley County's 581,370 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 228 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 Hockley Countyread your own land →