Potter County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Potter County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Potter 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 Potter County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Potter County — the short answer
Potter County, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 581K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 581K 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 7a is Potter County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Potter County's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Potter County
Across a year, Potter County accumulates about 4,311 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,513 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 24 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 2,148 hours below 45°F, 1,053 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 Potter County
Across Potter County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Acuff, Mobeetie, and Pullman are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.3–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
24%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Potter County
The USDA soil survey maps 89% of Potter County as well drained — but another 8% drains differently: 5% somewhat excessively drained, 2% excessively drained.
Acuff is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Mobeetie (11%) and Pullman (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 Potter County
Each reading below is measured for Potter 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 Potter 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 Potter County runs about pH 7.3–8.2, 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
MeasuredPotter County runs about 222 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
MeasuredPotter County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Potter County is in
Potter County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southwestern Tablelands (80%) and High Plains (20%). 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 Potter County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Potter County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 222-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 Potter County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Potter County
- monarch butterfly39 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Potter County
USGS estimates 11,441 lb of Glyphosate on Potter County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (8,799 lb) and Atrazine (3,683 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 Potter County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Potter County — 699 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (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 Potter 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 Potter County
Closest first, across Potter County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROCKING B FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- M & M LEASINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CASE POWER & EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- KEY GUARD FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ATC WASTE OIL STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- AMARILLO TX ARSRUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- EXXON 62732Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FINA 503Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- AMARILLO TEXAS OMUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WHEELABRATOR COAL SERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BOB HAMBLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- EXPWY MAINTENANCE SECT TXDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Potter 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 Potter County.
Total Sites
699
across Potter County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Potter County
Severity Distribution
across Potter County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Potter County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 560 sites across Potter County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Potter 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 Potter County average
Your land is one point inside Potter County
Everything above resolves to Potter County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 581K 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 Potter County Average
Potter County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Potter County
- ●One soil character for all of Potter County
- ●Frost dates read at Potter County's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Potter County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Potter County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Potter County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Potter County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Potter County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Potter County average
How we know this about Potter 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 Potter County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Potter County
When does frost risk typically end in Potter County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Potter County typically lands around Mar 30, 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 Apr 20.
How long is the growing season in Potter County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Potter County sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 24, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Potter County?
The federal record around Potter County is a meaningful one — 699 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (560), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Potter County's scale — its 7a band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Potter 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 Potter County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Potter County's own scale — its own ~222-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 699 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Potter County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Potter County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Potter CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 699 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Potter County's boundary and the 581,376 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Potter County spans, Southwestern Tablelands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Potter County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Potter 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 Potter County — the ~222 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 Potter County's 581,376 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 699 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 Potter Countyread your own land →