Martin County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Martin 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
Martin County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Martin 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 Martin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Martin County — the short answer
Martin County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 586K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 586K 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 Martin County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Martin County's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Martin County
Across a year, Martin County accumulates about 5,580 growing degree days above 50°F, about 244 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 79 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 1,422 hours below 45°F, 327 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 Martin County
Across Martin County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Amarillo, Midessa, and Kimbrough are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–8.1, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Martin County
The USDA soil survey maps 99% of Martin County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% poorly drained.
Amarillo is the most extensive named soil at 40% of mapped acres, then Midessa (10%) and Kimbrough (8%).
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 Martin County
Each reading below is measured for Martin 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 Martin 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 Martin County runs about pH 7.5–8.1, 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
MeasuredMartin County runs about 259 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
MeasuredMartin 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 Martin County is in
Martin 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 Martin County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Martin County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 259-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 Martin County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in Martin County
USGS estimates 422,134 lb of Glyphosate on Martin County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (86,832 lb) and 2,4-d (49,102 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 Martin County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Martin County — 53 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Martin 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 Martin County
Closest first, across Martin County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HINKLE ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LITTLE DUTCHMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TX DEPT OF TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TARZAN CONPRESSOR SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GLEN COXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TARZAN R L435240Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MABEE RANCH-GUY MABEE JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MABEE RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CAVE-BOWLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DANS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARTIN COUNTY ROAD & BRIDGE BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CC SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Martin 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 Martin County.
Total Sites
53
across Martin County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Martin County
Severity Distribution
across Martin County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Martin County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites across Martin County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Martin 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 Martin County average
Your land is one point inside Martin County
Everything above resolves to Martin County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 586K 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 Martin County Average
Martin County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Martin County
- ●One soil character for all of Martin County
- ●Frost dates read at Martin County's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Martin County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Martin County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Martin County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Martin County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Martin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Martin County average
How we know this about Martin 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 Martin County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Martin County
When does frost risk typically end in Martin County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Martin County typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Martin County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Martin County sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 7, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Martin County?
The federal record around Martin County shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Martin County's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Martin 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 Martin County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Martin County's own scale — its own ~259-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 53 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Martin County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Martin County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Martin CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 53 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Martin County's boundary and the 585,571 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Martin County sitting wholly inside the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Martin 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 Martin County — the ~259 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 Martin County's 585,571 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 53 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 Martin Countyread your own land →