Red River County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Red River County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Red River 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 Red River County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Red River County — the short answer
Red River County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 668K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 668K 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 Red River County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red River County's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Red River County
Across a year, Red River County accumulates about 5,365 growing degree days above 50°F, about 459 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 52 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 1,371 hours below 45°F, 276 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 Red River County
Across Red River County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Woodtell, Wrightsville, and Annona are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
29%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Red River County
The USDA soil survey maps 38% of Red River County as moderately well drained — but another 61% drains differently: 32% well drained, 18% poorly drained.
Woodtell is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Wrightsville (11%) and Annona (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 Red River County
Each reading below is measured for Red River 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 Red River 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 Red River County runs about pH 5.5–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 29% of Red River 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
MeasuredRed River County runs about 267 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 Red River County is in
Red River County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — East Central Texas Plains (60%) and South Central Plains (35%). 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 Red River County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Red River County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 267-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 Red River County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Red River County
- monarch butterfly6 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Red River County
USGS estimates 24,063 lb of 2,4-d on Red River County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (16,589 lb) and Glyphosate (11,767 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 Red River County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Red River County — 100 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 Red River 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 Red River County
Closest first, across Red River County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAKER AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MUSIC SHOPPEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PINE CREEK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- PONDEROSA LIQUORUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- JOHNTOWN GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WAR RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DOUGS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WALDRUM GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- VZB-LWFOTXUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BARNES COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- RED RIVER COUNTY PREC 3Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- RED RIVER COUNTY PCT 1Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red River 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 Red River County.
Total Sites
100
across Red River County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Red River County
Severity Distribution
across Red River County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red River County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 85 sites across Red River 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 Red River 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 Red River County average
Your land is one point inside Red River County
Everything above resolves to Red River County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 668K 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 Red River County Average
Red River County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Red River County
- ●One soil character for all of Red River County
- ●Frost dates read at Red River County's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red River County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Red River County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red River County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red River County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red River County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red River County average
How we know this about Red River 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 Red River County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Red River County
When does frost risk typically end in Red River County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red River County typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Red River County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red River County sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 8, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red River County?
The federal record around Red River County is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Red River County's scale — its 8b band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red River 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 Red River County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Red River County's own scale — its own ~267-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 100 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red River County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red River County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Red River CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 100 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Red River County's boundary and the 668,093 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Red River County spans, East Central Texas Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Red River County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Red River 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 Red River County — the ~267 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 Red River County's 668,093 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 100 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 Red River Countyread your own land →