Dayton, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dayton, 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 Dayton 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 Dayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dayton — the short answer
Dayton, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 20K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Liberty County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Dayton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dayton's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dayton
Each reading below is measured for Dayton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDayton runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Liberty County, the closest normal to Dayton) — 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
MeasuredDayton 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 Dayton is in
Dayton sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dayton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Liberty County is mostly South Central Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dayton
Every plant below cleared Dayton's own zone 9b and its 317-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dayton?
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 27 (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. 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 Dayton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dayton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUNTSMAN PETROCHEMICAL LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- HUNTSMAN PETROCHEMICAL LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- SB-64-01-109Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- GLOBAL TUBING LLC COILED TUBING MANUFACTURING FACILITY IN DAYTON TEXASToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- PHOENIX OILBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- KLEMPToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- INSTEEL WIRE PRODS.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- CHACHERE FEED STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SOUTHEAST TEXAS ENVIRONMENTALBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES INC.Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- SB-61-57-902Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dayton'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 Dayton.
Total Sites
244
within ~10 miles of Dayton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
21 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dayton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dayton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dayton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dayton — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dayton
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 Dayton average
Your land is one point inside Dayton
Everything above resolves to Dayton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 20K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Liberty County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Dayton Average
Dayton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Dayton
- ●One soil character for all of Dayton
- ●Frost dates read at Dayton's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dayton's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dayton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dayton, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dayton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dayton average
How we know this about Dayton
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 Liberty County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Dayton
When does frost risk typically end in Dayton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dayton typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 17.
When is the first frost in Dayton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dayton typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dayton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dayton sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 26, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dayton?
The federal record around Dayton is a meaningful one — 244 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dayton?
From about Nov 10 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 Dec 10 (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 Dec 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dayton's scale — its 9b band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dayton'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 Dayton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Dayton's own scale — the 19,623 acres it covers and 244 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dayton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 244 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dayton, the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dayton's boundary and the 19,623 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dayton sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dayton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Liberty County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dayton's 19,623 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Liberty County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Liberty 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 Liberty County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dayton's 19,623 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dayton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,623 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Dayton-wide figureread your own land →
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