Zapata 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.
Zapata 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
Zapata County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Zapata 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 Zapata County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Zapata County — the short answer
Zapata County, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 327 days between hard freezes, across 639K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~327
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 639K 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 Zapata County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Zapata County's 327-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Zapata County
Across a year, Zapata County accumulates about 8,967 growing degree days above 50°F, about 3,143 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 252 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 0 hours below 45°F, 1,095 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 Zapata County
Across Zapata County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Hebbronville, Brennan, and Maverick are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–8.0, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Zapata County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Zapata County as well drained — but another 20% drains differently: 18% moderately well drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Hebbronville is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Brennan (12%) and Maverick (10%).
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 Zapata County
Each reading below is measured for Zapata 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 Zapata 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 Zapata County runs about pH 7.2–8.0, 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
MeasuredZapata County runs about 327 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
MeasuredZapata 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 Zapata County is in
Zapata 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 Zapata County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Zapata County's own USDA zone 9b and its own 327-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 Zapata County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Zapata County
USGS estimates 6,401 lb of Glyphosate on Zapata County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (5,105 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,233 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 Zapata County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Zapata County — 54 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Zapata County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Zapata County
Closest first, across Zapata County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAS PALMAS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LALOS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DAWGYS DRIVE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JJ CILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LEOS DRIVE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CHAPA SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CORRALITOS RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RAMON GONZALEZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FRANCISCO TOVAR TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- D & M DRIVE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GUERRA SER STA & GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MEDINA SAND & GRAVELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Zapata 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 Zapata County.
Severity Distribution
across Zapata County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Zapata County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 49 sites across Zapata 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 Zapata 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 Zapata County average
Your land is one point inside Zapata County
Everything above resolves to Zapata County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 639K 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 Zapata County Average
Zapata County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Zapata County
- ●One soil character for all of Zapata County
- ●Frost dates read at Zapata County's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Zapata County's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Zapata County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Zapata County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Zapata County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Zapata County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Zapata County average
How we know this about Zapata 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 Zapata County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Zapata County
When does frost risk typically end in Zapata County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Zapata County typically lands around Jan 17, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in Zapata County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Zapata County sees about 327 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Nov 26, about 292 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Zapata County?
The federal record around Zapata County shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Zapata County's scale — its 9b band and its 327-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Zapata 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 Zapata County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Zapata County's own scale — its own ~327-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 54 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Zapata County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Zapata County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~327-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Zapata CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 54 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Zapata County's boundary and the 638,985 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~327-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Zapata County sitting wholly inside the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Zapata 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 Zapata County — the ~327 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 Zapata County's 638,985 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 54 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 Zapata Countyread your own land →