Runnels County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Runnels County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Runnels 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 Runnels County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Runnels County — the short answer
Runnels County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 673K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 673K 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 Runnels County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Runnels County's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Runnels County
Across a year, Runnels County accumulates about 5,834 growing degree days above 50°F, about 10 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 132 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 1,245 hours below 45°F, 150 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 Runnels County
Across Runnels County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Rowena, Potter, and Mereta are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.9–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
52%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Runnels County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Runnels County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% somewhat poorly drained, 1% excessively drained.
Rowena is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Potter (10%) and Mereta (10%).
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 Runnels County
Each reading below is measured for Runnels 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 Runnels 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 Runnels County runs about pH 7.9–8.2, 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
MeasuredRunnels County runs about 262 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
MeasuredRunnels 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 Runnels County is in
Runnels County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (87%) and Southwestern Tablelands (11%). 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 Runnels County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Runnels County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 262-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 Runnels County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Runnels County
- monarch butterfly13 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Runnels County
USGS estimates 190,421 lb of Glyphosate on Runnels County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (37,242 lb) and 2,4-d (32,143 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 Runnels County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Runnels County — 111 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Runnels 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 Runnels County
Closest first, across Runnels County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Glenn Ranch-1Mining · 0.9 mi
- ARNOLD C FRERICHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RUNNELS COUNTY WAREHOUSE PCT 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AGANDONED STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LUPES BARBER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TODDLES CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BALLINGER OP GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BENNIES BAR & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- EASTSIDE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RA BAGWELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOUTHSIDE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Runnels 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 Runnels County.
Total Sites
111
across Runnels County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Runnels County
Severity Distribution
across Runnels County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Runnels County, two things run higher than the national average across Runnels County — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (92 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Runnels 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 Runnels County average
Your land is one point inside Runnels County
Everything above resolves to Runnels County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 673K 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 Runnels County Average
Runnels County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Runnels County
- ●One soil character for all of Runnels County
- ●Frost dates read at Runnels County's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Runnels County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Runnels County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Runnels County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Runnels County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Runnels County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Runnels County average
How we know this about Runnels 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 Runnels County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Runnels County
When does frost risk typically end in Runnels County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Runnels County typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Runnels County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Runnels County sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 9, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Runnels County?
The federal record around Runnels County shows 111 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Mining record about 0.9 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 Runnels County's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Runnels 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 Runnels County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Runnels County's own scale — its own ~262-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 111 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Runnels County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Runnels County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Runnels CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 111 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Runnels County's boundary and the 672,684 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Runnels County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Runnels County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Runnels 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 Runnels County — the ~262 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 Runnels County's 672,684 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 111 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 Runnels Countyread your own land →