Polk County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Polk County lies within the Piney Woods — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Polk County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Polk 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 Polk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Polk County — the short answer
Polk County, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 677K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 677K 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 Polk County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Polk County's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Polk County
Across a year, Polk County accumulates about 6,385 growing degree days above 50°F, about 561 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 180 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 642 hours below 45°F, 453 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 Polk County
Across Polk County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Pinetucky, Woodville, and Hatliff are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
29%
Hydric soils
16%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Polk County
The USDA soil survey maps 36% of Polk County as moderately well drained — but another 60% drains differently: 26% somewhat poorly drained, 17% well drained.
Pinetucky is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Woodville (14%) and Hatliff (6%).
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 Polk County
Each reading below is measured for Polk 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 Polk County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Polk County runs about pH 4.8–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 16% of Polk County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredPolk County runs about 297 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
The kind of country Polk County is in
Polk County sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Polk County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Polk County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 297-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 Polk 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 Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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 Polk County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Polk County
USGS estimates 1,647 lb of 2,4-d on Polk County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (982 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (316 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 Polk County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Polk County — 261 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Polk 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 Polk County
Closest first, across Polk County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARNUM GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HEFLEYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CUDE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KOVAV AUTO & TRACTOR REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CORRIGAN-CAMDEN ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LYNN HENDRIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TXDOT LIVINGSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- RILEY BUILDING SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MUNSON GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CHAMPION INTERNATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SOLID WASTE LANDFILL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DUKE CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Polk 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 Polk County.
Total Sites
261
across Polk County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Polk County
Severity Distribution
across Polk County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Polk County, two things run higher than the national average across Polk County — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (191 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Polk 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 Polk County average
Your land is one point inside Polk County
Everything above resolves to Polk County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 677K 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 Polk County Average
Polk County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Polk County
- ●One soil character for all of Polk County
- ●Frost dates read at Polk County's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Polk County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Polk County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Polk County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Polk County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Polk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Polk County average
How we know this about Polk 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 Polk County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Polk County
When does frost risk typically end in Polk County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Polk County typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
How long is the growing season in Polk County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Polk County sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 21, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Polk County?
The federal record around Polk County is a meaningful one — 261 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (191), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Polk County's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Polk 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 Polk County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Polk County's own scale — its own ~297-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 261 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Polk County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Polk County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~297-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Polk CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 261 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Polk County's boundary and the 676,513 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Polk County sitting wholly inside the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Polk County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Polk 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 Polk County — the ~297 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 Polk County's 676,513 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 261 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 Polk Countyread your own land →