Hopkins County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hopkins County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hopkins 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 Hopkins County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hopkins County — the short answer
Hopkins County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 491K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 491K 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 8b is Hopkins County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hopkins County's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hopkins County
Across a year, Hopkins County accumulates about 5,660 growing degree days above 50°F, about 164 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 98 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 1,179 hours below 45°F, 84 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 Hopkins County
Across Hopkins County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Crockett, Nahatche, and Woodtell are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hopkins County
The USDA soil survey maps 53% of Hopkins County as moderately well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 29% well drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Crockett is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Nahatche (16%) and Woodtell (15%).
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 Hopkins County
Each reading below is measured for Hopkins 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 Hopkins County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hopkins County runs about pH 5.5–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 18% of Hopkins County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHopkins County runs about 274 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
The kind of country Hopkins County is in
Hopkins County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — East Central Texas Plains (79%) and Texas Blackland Prairies (21%). 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 Hopkins County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hopkins County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 274-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 Hopkins 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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Hopkins County
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hopkins County
USGS estimates 16,362 lb of 2,4-d on Hopkins County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (7,506 lb) and Glyphosate (5,153 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 Hopkins County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hopkins County — 228 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Hopkins 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 Hopkins County
Closest first, across Hopkins County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHAMNESS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BILLY R ELAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CARLTON SEWELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- HOPKINS COUNTY PRECINCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PICKTON TX RMLRUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MINTERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- AP GREEN INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- DIKE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MARTIN FERTILIZERUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- JOE BOBS 4Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- H & S TRAILER PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SULPHER SPRINGS SLR VORTACUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hopkins 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 Hopkins County.
Total Sites
228
across Hopkins County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Hopkins County
Severity Distribution
across Hopkins County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hopkins County, two things run higher than the national average across Hopkins County — CAFO (32 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Hopkins 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 Hopkins County average
Your land is one point inside Hopkins County
Everything above resolves to Hopkins County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 491K 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 Hopkins County Average
Hopkins County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hopkins County
- ●One soil character for all of Hopkins County
- ●Frost dates read at Hopkins County's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hopkins County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hopkins County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hopkins County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hopkins County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hopkins County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hopkins County average
How we know this about Hopkins 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 Hopkins County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hopkins County
When does frost risk typically end in Hopkins County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hopkins County typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 18.
How long is the growing season in Hopkins County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hopkins County sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 12, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hopkins County?
The federal record around Hopkins County is a meaningful one — 228 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), 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 Hopkins County's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hopkins 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 Hopkins County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hopkins County's own scale — its own ~274-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
- Hopkins County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hopkins County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~274-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hopkins 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
- Hopkins County's boundary and the 491,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hopkins County spans, East Central Texas Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hopkins County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hopkins 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 Hopkins County — the ~274 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 Hopkins County's 491,155 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 Hopkins Countyread your own land →