Stonewall County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Stonewall County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Stonewall 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 Stonewall County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stonewall County — the short answer
Stonewall County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 586K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 586K 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 Stonewall County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stonewall County's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Stonewall County
Across a year, Stonewall County accumulates about 5,496 growing degree days above 50°F, about 328 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 66 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 1,537 hours below 45°F, 442 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 Stonewall County
Across Stonewall County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Tillman, Nobscot, and Knoco are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
28%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Stonewall County
The USDA soil survey maps 97% of Stonewall County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Tillman is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Nobscot (10%) and Knoco (8%).
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 Stonewall County
Each reading below is measured for Stonewall 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 Stonewall 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 Stonewall County runs about pH 7.0–8.2, 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
MeasuredStonewall County runs about 248 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
MeasuredStonewall 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 Stonewall County is in
Stonewall County sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Stonewall County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Stonewall County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 248-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 Stonewall County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in Stonewall County
USGS estimates 42,934 lb of Glyphosate on Stonewall County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (11,722 lb) and Dicamba (11,616 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 Stonewall County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Stonewall County — 30 documented sites across 2 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 15 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across Stonewall County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Stonewall County
Closest first, across Stonewall County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- NED H WARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- NED WARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- TXDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DUBS DELI & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- RIMES WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PHILLIPS PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PHILLIPS SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- MULLEN AND SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- THROCKMORTON AQ PRODUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DIGGS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- JONES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stonewall 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 Stonewall County.
Severity Distribution
across Stonewall County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stonewall County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 15 sites across Stonewall County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Stonewall 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 Stonewall County average
Your land is one point inside Stonewall County
Everything above resolves to Stonewall County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 586K 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 Stonewall County Average
Stonewall County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Stonewall County
- ●One soil character for all of Stonewall County
- ●Frost dates read at Stonewall County's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stonewall County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Stonewall County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stonewall County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stonewall County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stonewall County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stonewall County average
How we know this about Stonewall 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 Stonewall County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Stonewall County
When does frost risk typically end in Stonewall County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stonewall County typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
How long is the growing season in Stonewall County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stonewall County sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 3, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stonewall County?
The federal record around Stonewall County is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Stonewall County's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stonewall 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 Stonewall County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Stonewall County's own scale — its own ~248-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 30 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stonewall County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stonewall County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Stonewall CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 30 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Stonewall County's boundary and the 586,440 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stonewall County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Stonewall 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 Stonewall County — the ~248 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 Stonewall County's 586,440 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 30 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 Stonewall Countyread your own land →