Upton 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Upton County lies within the Texas High Plains / Panhandle and the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Upton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Upton 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 Upton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Upton County — the short answer
Upton County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 794K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 794K 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 Upton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Upton County's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Upton County
Across a year, Upton County accumulates about 5,931 growing degree days above 50°F, about 107 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 143 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 1,249 hours below 45°F, 154 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 Upton County
Across Upton County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Reagan, Lozier, and Conger are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Upton County
Reagan is the most extensive named soil at 65% of mapped acres, then Lozier (11%) and Conger (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 Upton County
Each reading below is measured for Upton 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 Upton 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 Upton County runs about pH 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
MeasuredUpton County runs about 270 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
MeasuredUpton 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 Upton County is in
Upton County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — High Plains (58%), Chihuahuan Deserts (27%) and Edwards Plateau (15%). 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 Upton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Upton County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 270-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 Upton County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What gets applied to farmland in Upton County
USGS estimates 33,740 lb of Glyphosate on Upton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (11,063 lb) and Dicamba (10,244 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 Upton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Upton County — 42 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Upton 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 Upton County
Closest first, across Upton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAY R BARRETT JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WHISMAN HUMBLE PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COUNTY YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WOOD OIL DIST 215Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AT&SF RAILWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- F C BOLEN OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PIONEER OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHELL PIPE LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- UPTON COUNTY PRCT 1 & 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHELL PIPE LINE MCCAMEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MIDKIFF CRUDE INJECTION STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Upton 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 Upton County.
Severity Distribution
across Upton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Upton County, two things run higher than the national average across Upton County — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (28 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 Upton 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 Upton County average
Your land is one point inside Upton County
Everything above resolves to Upton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 794K 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 Upton County Average
Upton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Upton County
- ●One soil character for all of Upton County
- ●Frost dates read at Upton County's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Upton County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Upton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Upton County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Upton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Upton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Upton County average
How we know this about Upton 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 Upton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Upton County
When does frost risk typically end in Upton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Upton County typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Upton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Upton County sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 10, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Upton County?
The federal record around Upton County is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Upton County's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Upton 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 Upton County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Upton County's own scale — its own ~270-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 42 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Upton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Upton County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~270-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Upton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 42 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Upton County's boundary and the 794,446 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Upton County spans, High Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Upton 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 Upton County — the ~270 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 Upton County's 794,446 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 42 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 Upton Countyread your own land →