Jones County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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
Jones County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Jones 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 Jones County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jones County — the short answer
Jones County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 594K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 594K 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 Jones County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jones County's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Jones County
Across a year, Jones County accumulates about 5,697 growing degree days above 50°F, about 127 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 105 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 1,398 hours below 45°F, 303 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 Jones County
Across Jones County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Rowena, Sagerton, and Tillman are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
60%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Jones County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Jones County as well drained — but another 9% drains differently: 5% somewhat excessively drained, 4% moderately well drained.
Rowena is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Sagerton (14%) and Tillman (12%).
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 Jones County
Each reading below is measured for Jones 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 Jones County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Jones County runs about pH 7.0–8.2, 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
MeasuredJones County runs about 256 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
MeasuredJones 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 Jones County is in
Jones County sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Jones County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Jones County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 256-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 Jones 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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (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.
Documented around Jones County
- monarch butterfly831 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Jones County
USGS estimates 146,960 lb of Glyphosate on Jones County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (28,640 lb) and 2,4-d (23,177 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 Jones County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Jones County — 119 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). 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 Jones 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 Jones County
Closest first, across Jones County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DALE ROSS & SONS PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 7 ELEVEN 23Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WOODARDS SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD ARMORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HAWLEY ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STAMFORD MUNINCIPLE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- A E KILLION TANIL TRUCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- I A PARMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- STAMFORD R L435190Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PRONTO GAS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BEASLEY WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WES-TEX DRILLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jones 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 Jones County.
Total Sites
119
across Jones County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Jones County
Severity Distribution
across Jones County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jones County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 98 sites across Jones County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Jones 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 Jones County average
Your land is one point inside Jones County
Everything above resolves to Jones County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 594K 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 Jones County Average
Jones County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Jones County
- ●One soil character for all of Jones County
- ●Frost dates read at Jones County's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jones County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Jones County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jones County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jones County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jones County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jones County average
How we know this about Jones 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 Jones County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Jones County
When does frost risk typically end in Jones County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jones County typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
How long is the growing season in Jones County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jones County sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 7, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jones County?
The federal record around Jones County is a meaningful one — 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Jones County's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jones 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 Jones County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Jones County's own scale — its own ~256-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 119 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jones County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jones County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Jones CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 119 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Jones County's boundary and the 594,307 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Jones County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Jones County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Jones 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 Jones County — the ~256 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 Jones County's 594,307 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 119 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 Jones Countyread your own land →