El Cenizo, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in El Cenizo, 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 El Cenizo 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 El Cenizo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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El Cenizo — the short answer
El Cenizo, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 330 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 330 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 Webb County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is El Cenizo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Cenizo's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in El Cenizo
Each reading below is measured for El Cenizo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEl Cenizo runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Webb County, the closest normal to El Cenizo) — 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
MeasuredEl Cenizo 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 El Cenizo is in
El Cenizo sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at El Cenizo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webb County.
What Grows in El Cenizo
Every plant below cleared El Cenizo's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in El Cenizo?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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 El Cenizo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of El Cenizo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J O ALVAREZ INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- RIO BRAVO BEER RUNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7815Brownfields · 2.8 mi
- RIO BRAVO CASH & CARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 36548Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER 3623Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CORNER STORE 1832Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40890Underground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- NARVAEZ-SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- CITY OF LAREDOPFAS · 7.8 mi
- WEBB COUNTY WATER UTILITIESPFAS · 7.8 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40893Underground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Cenizo'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 El Cenizo.
Total Sites
25
within ~10 miles of El Cenizo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of El Cenizo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of El Cenizo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Cenizo, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of El Cenizo. 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 El Cenizo
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 El Cenizo average
Your land is one point inside El Cenizo
Everything above resolves to El Cenizo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 330 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Webb 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 El Cenizo Average
El Cenizo Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across El Cenizo
- ●One soil character for all of El Cenizo
- ●Frost dates read at El Cenizo's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Cenizo's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in El Cenizo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Cenizo, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Cenizo averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Cenizo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Cenizo average
How we know this about El Cenizo
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 Webb 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 El Cenizo
When does frost risk typically end in El Cenizo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Cenizo typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in El Cenizo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in El Cenizo typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in El Cenizo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Cenizo sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 3, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Cenizo?
The federal record around El Cenizo shows 25 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in El Cenizo?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at El Cenizo's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Cenizo'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 El Cenizo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at El Cenizo's own scale — the 330 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Cenizo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near El Cenizo, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- El Cenizo's boundary and the 330 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at El Cenizo's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — El Cenizo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Webb County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so El Cenizo's 330 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webb 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 Webb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among El Cenizo's 330 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of El Cenizo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 330 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 El Cenizo-wide figureread your own land →