Pecos County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Pecos County lies within the Trans-Pecos / Big Bend — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Pecos County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pecos 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 Pecos County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pecos County — the short answer
Pecos County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 3.0M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 3.0M 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 Pecos County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pecos County's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Pecos County
Across a year, Pecos County accumulates about 6,020 growing degree days above 50°F, about 196 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 152 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 1,139 hours below 45°F, 44 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 Pecos County
Across Pecos County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Ector, Reakor, and Lozier are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very gravelly loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 8.0–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pecos County
The USDA soil survey maps 96% of Pecos County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Ector is the most extensive named soil at 23% of mapped acres, then Reakor (13%) and Lozier (11%).
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 Pecos County
Each reading below is measured for Pecos 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 Pecos County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Pecos County runs about pH 8.0–8.2, 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
MeasuredPecos County runs about 278 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
MeasuredPecos County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Pecos County is in
Pecos County sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Pecos County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pecos County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 278-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 Pecos 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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Pecos County
- monarch butterfly72 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Pecos County
USGS estimates 8,770 lb of Glyphosate on Pecos County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (5,681 lb) and 2,4-d (5,059 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 Pecos County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pecos County — 265 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Pecos 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 Pecos County
Closest first, across Pecos County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAKERSFIELD CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALLISON RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TEXASGULF CHEMICALSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- IRAAN MOTOR FREIGHT LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- W R LANEHART MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COYANOSA COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRANSWESTERN GOMEZ STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHEVRON USAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AT&SF RAILWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WAHA TREATING PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TOBORG FIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GREER OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pecos 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 Pecos County.
Total Sites
265
across Pecos County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Severity Distribution
across Pecos County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pecos County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 114 sites across Pecos County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pecos 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 Pecos County average
Your land is one point inside Pecos County
Everything above resolves to Pecos County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 3.0M 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 Pecos County Average
Pecos County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pecos County
- ●One soil character for all of Pecos County
- ●Frost dates read at Pecos County's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pecos County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pecos County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pecos County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pecos County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pecos County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pecos County average
How we know this about Pecos 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 Pecos County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pecos County
When does frost risk typically end in Pecos County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pecos County typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
How long is the growing season in Pecos County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pecos County sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 12, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pecos County?
The federal record around Pecos County is a meaningful one — 265 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Pecos County's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pecos 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 Pecos County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Pecos County's own scale — its own ~278-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 265 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pecos County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pecos County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~278-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pecos CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 265 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pecos County's boundary and the 3,048,851 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pecos County sitting wholly inside the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Pecos County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pecos 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 Pecos County — the ~278 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 Pecos County's 3,048,851 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 265 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 Pecos Countyread your own land →