Crane, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crane, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Crane lot. 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 Crane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crane — the short answer
Crane, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 675 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 675 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Crane's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crane's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crane
Each reading below is measured for Crane itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrane runs about 267 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
MeasuredCrane 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 Crane is in
Crane sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Crane's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Crane County is mostly High Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Crane
Every plant below cleared Crane's own zone 8b and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crane?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Crane
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crane. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRANE MEMORIAL HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- EDDINS WALCHER SECURITY FUEL SYSTEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- STRIPES 5006Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- THE FILLING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ALLSUPS 282Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CRANE COUNTY CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2495Brownfields · 1700 ft
- LEOS CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SAC N PACUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CRANE INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- M & P CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NABORS CRANE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crane'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 Crane.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Crane
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crane
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crane
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crane, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Crane. 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 Crane
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 Crane average
Your land is one point inside Crane
Everything above resolves to Crane as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 675 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Crane Average
Crane Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Crane
- ●One soil character for all of Crane
- ●Frost dates read at Crane's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crane's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crane
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crane, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crane averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crane — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crane average
How we know this about Crane
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crane’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Crane
When does frost risk typically end in Crane?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crane typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Crane?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crane typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crane?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crane sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 9, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crane?
The federal record around Crane is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crane?
From about Oct 24 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crane's scale — its 8b band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crane's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Crane’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crane's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 675 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crane's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crane's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 1 and Nov 23 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crane, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crane's boundary and the 675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crane sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crane's 675 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crane County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crane County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Crane County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crane's 675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crane you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 675 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Crane-wide figureread your own land →