Victoria County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Victoria County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Victoria 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 Victoria County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Victoria County — the short answer
Victoria County, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 320 days between hard freezes, across 565K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~320
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 565K 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 9b is Victoria County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Victoria County's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Victoria County
Across a year, Victoria County accumulates about 7,616 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,792 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 226 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 108 hours below 45°F, 987 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 Victoria County
Across Victoria County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Laewest, Telferner, and Dacosta are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
37%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Victoria County
The USDA soil survey maps 73% of Victoria County as moderately well drained — but another 26% drains differently: 14% somewhat poorly drained, 9% well drained.
Laewest is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Telferner (18%) and Dacosta (12%).
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 Victoria County
Each reading below is measured for Victoria 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 Victoria County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Victoria County runs about pH 6.2–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredVictoria County runs about 320 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
MeasuredVictoria County sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Victoria County is in
Victoria County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Gulf Coastal Plain (92%) and East Central Texas Plains (8%). 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 Victoria County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Victoria County's own USDA zone 9b and its own 320-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 Victoria County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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 Victoria County
- monarch butterfly419 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Victoria County
USGS estimates 145,441 lb of Glyphosate on Victoria County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (47,816 lb) and Metolachlor-s (41,370 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 Victoria County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Victoria County — 458 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 Victoria 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 Victoria County
Closest first, across Victoria County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VICTORIA COUNTY PCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- KEITHS GULF SERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- TELLFERNER GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MCFADDIN MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- A M GROLLS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- GTSW-BLOOMINGTON MICROW BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- AIRCO INDUSTRIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- GROLLS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- GUADALUPE LIQ FEEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CIRCLE K 1547Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MOBIL OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- VALLEY DRIVE IN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Victoria 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 Victoria County.
Total Sites
458
across Victoria County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Victoria County
Severity Distribution
across Victoria County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Victoria County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 353 sites across Victoria 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 Victoria 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 Victoria County average
Your land is one point inside Victoria County
Everything above resolves to Victoria County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 565K 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 Victoria County Average
Victoria County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Victoria County
- ●One soil character for all of Victoria County
- ●Frost dates read at Victoria County's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Victoria County's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Victoria County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Victoria County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Victoria County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Victoria County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Victoria County average
How we know this about Victoria 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 Victoria County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Victoria County
When does frost risk typically end in Victoria County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Victoria County typically lands around Jan 28, 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 Feb 18.
How long is the growing season in Victoria County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Victoria County sees about 320 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Nov 30, about 285 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Victoria County?
The federal record around Victoria County is a meaningful one — 458 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (353), 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 Victoria County's scale — its 9b band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Victoria 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 Victoria County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Victoria County's own scale — its own ~320-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 458 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Victoria County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Victoria County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~320-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Victoria CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 458 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
- Victoria County's boundary and the 564,535 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~320-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Victoria County spans, Western Gulf Coastal Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Victoria County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Victoria 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 Victoria County — the ~320 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 Victoria County's 564,535 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 458 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 Victoria Countyread your own land →