Webb County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Webb County lies within the South Texas Plains / Brush Country (Rio Grande Plains) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Webb County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Webb 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 Webb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Webb County — the short answer
Webb County, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 2.2M acres.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.2M 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 Webb County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Webb County's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Webb County
Across a year, Webb County accumulates about 8,572 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,748 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 248 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 38 hours below 45°F, 1,057 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 Webb County
Across Webb County, the ground is predominantly Vertisols, where Catarina, Maverick, and Copita are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Vertisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Webb County
The USDA soil survey maps 70% of Webb County as well drained — but another 30% drains differently: 30% moderately well drained.
Catarina is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Maverick (10%) and Copita (9%).
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 Webb County
Each reading below is measured for Webb 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 Webb 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 Webb County runs about pH 7.2–8.2, 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
MeasuredWebb County runs about 326 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
MeasuredWebb 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 Webb County is in
Webb County sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Webb County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Webb County's own USDA zone 9b and its own 326-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 Webb 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 Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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.
Documented around Webb County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Webb County
USGS estimates 11,026 lb of 2,4-d on Webb County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (4,102 lb) and Triclopyr (1,196 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 Webb County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Webb County — 653 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Webb 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 Webb County
Closest first, across Webb County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAREDO JCTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BRUNI SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LAREDO OPERATIONS CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ENCINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LAREDO TX RCAGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- OILTON SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOLT MACHINERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JOHN DEERE INDUSTRIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KEY ENERGY SERVICES SOUTH TEXASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ANZONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LAREDO HEADQUARTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MELTON TRUCK LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Webb 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 Webb County.
Total Sites
653
across Webb County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Webb County
Severity Distribution
across Webb County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Webb 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 Webb County average
Your land is one point inside Webb County
Everything above resolves to Webb County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.2M 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 Webb County Average
Webb County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Webb County
- ●One soil character for all of Webb County
- ●Frost dates read at Webb County's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Webb County's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Webb County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Webb County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Webb County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Webb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Webb County average
How we know this about Webb 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 Webb County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Webb County
When does frost risk typically end in Webb County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Webb County typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
How long is the growing season in Webb County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Webb County sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 3, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Webb County?
The federal record around Webb County is a meaningful one — 653 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (375), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles 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 Webb County's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Webb 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 Webb County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Webb County's own scale — its own ~326-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 653 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Webb County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Webb County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~326-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Webb CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 653 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Webb County's boundary and the 2,151,357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Webb County sitting wholly inside the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Webb County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Webb 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 Webb County — the ~326 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 Webb County's 2,151,357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 653 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 Webb Countyread your own land →