Lavaca County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lavaca County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lavaca 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 Lavaca County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lavaca County — the short answer
Lavaca County, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 621K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 621K 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 Lavaca County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lavaca County's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Lavaca County
Across a year, Lavaca County accumulates about 7,220 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,396 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 215 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 291 hours below 45°F, 804 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 Lavaca County
Across Lavaca County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Straber, Tremona, and Carbengle are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loamy fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–7.7, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
33%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lavaca County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Lavaca County as moderately well drained — but another 39% drains differently: 25% well drained, 13% somewhat poorly drained.
Straber is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Tremona (13%) and Carbengle (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 Lavaca County
Each reading below is measured for Lavaca 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 Lavaca County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Lavaca County runs about pH 5.8–7.7, 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
Season length
MeasuredLavaca County runs about 313 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
MeasuredLavaca 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 Lavaca County is in
Lavaca County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Texas Blackland Prairies (52%), East Central Texas Plains (42%) and Western Gulf Coastal Plain (6%). 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 Lavaca County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lavaca County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 313-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 Lavaca 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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 29 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Lavaca County
- monarch butterfly4 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lavaca County
USGS estimates 19,012 lb of 2,4-d on Lavaca County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (10,347 lb) and Atrazine (4,402 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 Lavaca County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lavaca County — 124 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Lavaca 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 Lavaca County
Closest first, across Lavaca County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTH WEST SPEAKS FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KINCER FOOD STORE 10Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BLASES PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BISHOP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LAVACA COUNTY PCT 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LAVACA COUNTY PCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CHEVRON FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MUHLSTEIN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CITY OF HALLETTSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TERRYVILLE DEHYDRATION PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BRUSHY CREEK COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KRAMS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lavaca 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 Lavaca County.
Total Sites
124
across Lavaca County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Lavaca County
Severity Distribution
across Lavaca County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lavaca County, two things run higher than the national average across Lavaca County — Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (101 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lavaca 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 Lavaca County average
Your land is one point inside Lavaca County
Everything above resolves to Lavaca County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 621K 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 Lavaca County Average
Lavaca County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lavaca County
- ●One soil character for all of Lavaca County
- ●Frost dates read at Lavaca County's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lavaca County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lavaca County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lavaca County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lavaca County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lavaca County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lavaca County average
How we know this about Lavaca 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 Lavaca County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lavaca County
When does frost risk typically end in Lavaca County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lavaca County typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Lavaca County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lavaca County sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 24, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lavaca County?
The federal record around Lavaca County shows 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Lavaca County's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lavaca 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 Lavaca County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lavaca County's own scale — its own ~313-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 124 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lavaca County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lavaca County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~313-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lavaca CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 124 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
- Lavaca County's boundary and the 620,613 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~313-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Lavaca County spans, Texas Blackland Prairies the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lavaca County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lavaca 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 Lavaca County — the ~313 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 Lavaca County's 620,613 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 124 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 Lavaca Countyread your own land →