Ector, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ector, 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 Ector 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 Ector — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ector — the short answer
Ector, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 751 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Fannin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Fannin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Fannin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 751 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 Fannin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Ector's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ector's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ector
Each reading below is measured for Ector itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEctor runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Fannin County, the closest normal to Ector) — 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
MeasuredEctor sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Ector is in
Ector sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ector's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fannin County.
What Grows in Ector
Every plant below cleared Ector's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ector?
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 Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Ector
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ector. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ECTOR FEED STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- ECTOR FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- VOLUNTARY PURCHASING GROUPS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- VOLUNTARY PURCHASING GROUPSuperfund · 2.3 mi
- VOLUNTARY PURCHASING GROUPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SUNSHINE 6Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- KEYSTONE ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- CLAYTON HOMES BONHAMToxics Release Inventory · 4.5 mi
- KWIK CHEK 10Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER 158Brownfields · 4.8 mi
- MURPHY USA 6764Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #205Brownfields · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ector'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 Ector.
Total Sites
134
within ~10 miles of Ector
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ector
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ector
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ector, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ector — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (113 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ector
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 Ector average
Your land is one point inside Ector
Everything above resolves to Ector as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 751 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fannin 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 Ector Average
Ector Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ector
- ●One soil character for all of Ector
- ●Frost dates read at Ector's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ector's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ector
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ector, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ector averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ector — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ector average
How we know this about Ector
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 Fannin 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 Ector
When does frost risk typically end in Ector?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ector typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Ector?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ector typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ector?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ector sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 8, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ector?
The federal record around Ector is a meaningful one — 134 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ector?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ector's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ector'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 Ector’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ector's own scale — the 751 acres it covers and 134 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ector's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 134 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ector, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ector's boundary and the 751 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ector's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ector has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fannin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ector's 751 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fannin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fannin 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 Fannin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ector's 751 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ector you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 751 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ector-wide figureread your own land →
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