Sutton 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.
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
Sutton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sutton 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 Sutton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sutton County — the short answer
Sutton County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 931K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 931K 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 Sutton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sutton County's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Sutton County
Across a year, Sutton County accumulates about 5,545 growing degree days above 50°F, about 279 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 71 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 1,250 hours below 45°F, 155 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 Sutton County
Across Sutton County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Tarrant, Kavett, and Angelo are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very cobbly clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.6–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sutton County
Tarrant is the most extensive named soil at 66% of mapped acres, then Kavett (14%) and Angelo (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 Sutton County
Each reading below is measured for Sutton 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 Sutton 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 Sutton County runs about pH 7.6–7.9, 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
MeasuredSutton County runs about 251 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
MeasuredSutton 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 Sutton County is in
Sutton County sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Sutton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sutton County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 251-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 Sutton 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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Sutton County
- monarch butterfly200 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Sutton County
USGS estimates 3,546 lb of 2,4-d on Sutton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (1,379 lb) and Triclopyr (393 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 Sutton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sutton County — 40 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Sutton 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 Sutton County
Closest first, across Sutton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARL J CAHILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CANYON RANCH HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- COUNTRY FRIED CHICKEN & FISHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MIGUEL SANCHEZUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- JACAM MANUFACTURING 2013 LLC-JACAM SOUTHWEST SONORAToxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
- UNITED FUEL & ENERGY CORPToxics Release Inventory · 7.9 mi
- SONORA ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- WHITWORTH GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- XS-55-27-604Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- STRIPES 191Underground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- SONORA TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- ALS OIL & LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sutton 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 Sutton County.
Sources Checked
across Sutton County
Severity Distribution
across Sutton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sutton County, two things run higher than the national average across Sutton County — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (29 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sutton 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 Sutton County average
Your land is one point inside Sutton County
Everything above resolves to Sutton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 931K 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 Sutton County Average
Sutton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Sutton County
- ●One soil character for all of Sutton County
- ●Frost dates read at Sutton County's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sutton County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sutton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sutton County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sutton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sutton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sutton County average
How we know this about Sutton 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 Sutton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sutton County
When does frost risk typically end in Sutton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sutton County typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 1.
How long is the growing season in Sutton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sutton County sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 3, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sutton County?
The federal record around Sutton County is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles 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 Sutton County's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sutton 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 Sutton County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Sutton County's own scale — its own ~251-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 40 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sutton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sutton County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sutton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 40 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sutton County's boundary and the 930,518 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sutton County sitting wholly inside the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Sutton County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sutton 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 Sutton County — the ~251 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 Sutton County's 930,518 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 40 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 Sutton Countyread your own land →