Upshur County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Upshur County lies within the Piney Woods — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Upshur County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Upshur 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 Upshur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Upshur County — the short answer
Upshur County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 373K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 373K 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 Upshur County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Upshur County's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Upshur County
Across a year, Upshur County accumulates about 5,727 growing degree days above 50°F, about 97 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 114 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 1,025 hours below 45°F, 70 fewer 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 Upshur County
Across Upshur County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Cuthbert, Bowie, and Lilbert are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
24%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Upshur County
The USDA soil survey maps 72% of Upshur County as well drained — but another 27% drains differently: 15% moderately well drained, 7% somewhat poorly drained.
Cuthbert is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Bowie (21%) and Lilbert (14%).
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 Upshur County
Each reading below is measured for Upshur 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 Upshur 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 Upshur County runs about pH 5.3–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredUpshur County runs about 277 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
MeasuredUpshur County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Upshur County is in
Upshur County sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Upshur County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Upshur County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 277-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 Upshur County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Upshur County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Upshur County
USGS estimates 6,665 lb of 2,4-d on Upshur County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (2,869 lb) and Glyphosate (1,346 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 Upshur County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Upshur County — 182 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Upshur 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 Upshur County
Closest first, across Upshur County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IRVIN CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- EAST TEXAS TELEPHONE COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WILLIS GILBERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GILMER S SUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BIG SANDY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CITY OF ORE CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- STEVES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SPEEDY PANTRY 1Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- OLD SIGNAL HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- DIANA FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GILBERT GAS & GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- 155 MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Upshur 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 Upshur County.
Total Sites
182
across Upshur County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Upshur County
Severity Distribution
across Upshur County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Upshur County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 137 sites across Upshur County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Upshur 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 Upshur County average
Your land is one point inside Upshur County
Everything above resolves to Upshur County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 373K 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 Upshur County Average
Upshur County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Upshur County
- ●One soil character for all of Upshur County
- ●Frost dates read at Upshur County's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Upshur County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Upshur County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Upshur County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Upshur County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Upshur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Upshur County average
How we know this about Upshur 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 Upshur County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Upshur County
When does frost risk typically end in Upshur County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Upshur County typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
How long is the growing season in Upshur County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Upshur County sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 14, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Upshur County?
The federal record around Upshur County is a meaningful one — 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Upshur County's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Upshur 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 Upshur County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Upshur County's own scale — its own ~277-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 182 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Upshur County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Upshur County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~277-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Upshur CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 182 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
- Upshur County's boundary and the 373,107 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Upshur County sitting wholly inside the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Upshur County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Upshur 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 Upshur County — the ~277 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 Upshur County's 373,107 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 182 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 Upshur Countyread your own land →