Del Rio, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Del Rio, 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 Del Rio 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 Del Rio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Del Rio — the short answer
Del Rio, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Val Verde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Val Verde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Val Verde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 13K 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 Val Verde County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Del Rio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Del Rio's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Del Rio
Each reading below is measured for Del Rio itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDel Rio runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Val Verde County, the closest normal to Del Rio) — 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
MeasuredDel Rio sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Del Rio is in
Del Rio sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Del Rio's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Val Verde County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Del Rio
Every plant below cleared Del Rio's own zone 9a and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Del Rio?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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's on the federal record near Del Rio
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Del Rio. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YR-70-41-302Nitrate · 1000 ft
- MARES MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TEXAS DEPT OF PUBLIC SAFETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BASSE TRUCK LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SHORT STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- COCA COLA BOTTLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TEJANO MART 601Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CW RAY INDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40538Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOMMY FELTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MINIT MART 109Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Del Rio'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 Del Rio.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Del Rio
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Del Rio
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Del Rio
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Del Rio, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Del Rio — Underground Storage Tanks (112 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Del Rio
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 Del Rio average
Your land is one point inside Del Rio
Everything above resolves to Del Rio as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 13K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Val Verde 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 Del Rio Average
Del Rio Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Del Rio
- ●One soil character for all of Del Rio
- ●Frost dates read at Del Rio's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Del Rio's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Del Rio
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Del Rio, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Del Rio averages can't show:
We read public map data around Del Rio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Del Rio average
How we know this about Del Rio
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 Val Verde 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 Del Rio
When does frost risk typically end in Del Rio?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Del Rio typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Del Rio?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Del Rio typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Del Rio?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Del Rio sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 15, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Del Rio?
The federal record around Del Rio is a meaningful one — 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Del Rio?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Del Rio's scale — its 9a band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Del Rio'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 Del Rio’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Del Rio's own scale — the 13,094 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Del Rio's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Del Rio, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Del Rio's boundary and the 13,094 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Del Rio sits in the Southern Texas Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Del Rio has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Val Verde County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Del Rio's 13,094 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Val Verde County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Val Verde 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 Val Verde County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Del Rio's 13,094 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Del Rio you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,094 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Del Rio-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasDel Rio sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides