Live Oak County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Live Oak County lies within the Coastal Bend — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Live Oak County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Live Oak 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 Live Oak County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Live Oak County — the short answer
Live Oak County, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 665K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 665K 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 Live Oak County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Live Oak County's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Live Oak County
Across a year, Live Oak County accumulates about 8,021 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,197 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 239 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 116 hours below 45°F, 979 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 Live Oak County
Across Live Oak County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Weesatche, Pernitas, and Sarnosa are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.4–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
36%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Live Oak County
The USDA soil survey maps 80% of Live Oak County as well drained — but another 16% drains differently: 14% moderately well drained, 2% somewhat poorly drained.
Weesatche is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Pernitas (14%) and Sarnosa (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 Live Oak County
Each reading below is measured for Live Oak 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 Live Oak 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 Live Oak County runs about pH 7.4–7.9, 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
MeasuredLive Oak County runs about 311 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
MeasuredLive Oak 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 Live Oak County is in
Live Oak County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southern Texas Plains (67%) and East Central Texas Plains (31%). 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 Live Oak County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Live Oak County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 311-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 Live Oak 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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Live Oak County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Live Oak County
USGS estimates 29,857 lb of Glyphosate on Live Oak County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (12,095 lb) and Atrazine (9,808 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 Live Oak County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Live Oak County — 102 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 Live Oak 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 Live Oak County
Closest first, across Live Oak County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOORES CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WARD WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ALVIN WERNLI STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SWINNEY SWITCH STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GEORGE WEST STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TGPL THREE RIVERS CREWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CHOKE CANYON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CROCKER PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- VANS BAR-B-QUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HARGREAVES 66 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LAKE VISTA COMM IMPROVE ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- THREE RIVERS TX VORTACUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Live Oak 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 Live Oak County.
Total Sites
102
across Live Oak County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Live Oak County
Severity Distribution
across Live Oak County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Live Oak County, two things run higher than the national average across Live Oak County — Underground Storage Tanks (76 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 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 Live Oak 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 Live Oak County average
Your land is one point inside Live Oak County
Everything above resolves to Live Oak County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 665K 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 Live Oak County Average
Live Oak County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Live Oak County
- ●One soil character for all of Live Oak County
- ●Frost dates read at Live Oak County's scale: Feb 2 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Live Oak County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Live Oak County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Live Oak County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Live Oak County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Live Oak County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Live Oak County average
How we know this about Live Oak 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 Live Oak County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Live Oak County
When does frost risk typically end in Live Oak County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Live Oak County typically lands around Feb 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Live Oak County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Live Oak County sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Feb 2 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 23 to Nov 26, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Live Oak County?
The federal record around Live Oak County is a meaningful one — 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), 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 Live Oak County's scale — its 9a band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Live Oak 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 Live Oak County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Live Oak County's own scale — its own ~311-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 102 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Live Oak County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Live Oak County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~311-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Live Oak CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 102 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
- Live Oak County's boundary and the 665,404 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Live Oak County spans, Southern Texas Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Live Oak County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Live Oak 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 Live Oak County — the ~311 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 Live Oak County's 665,404 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 102 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 Live Oak Countyread your own land →