El Rancho Vela, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in El Rancho Vela, 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 Rancho Vela 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 Rancho Vela — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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El Rancho Vela — the short answer
El Rancho Vela, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 83 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 21
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 83 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 Starr County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is El Rancho Vela's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Rancho Vela's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in El Rancho Vela
Each reading below is measured for El Rancho Vela itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEl Rancho Vela runs about 322 days between hard freezes (read from Starr County, the closest normal to El Rancho Vela) — 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 Rancho Vela 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 Rancho Vela is in
El Rancho Vela sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at El Rancho Vela's own centroid rather than borrowed from Starr County.
What Grows in El Rancho Vela
Every plant below cleared El Rancho Vela's own zone 9b and its 322-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in El Rancho Vela?
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 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near El Rancho Vela
Closest first, within ~10 miles of El Rancho Vela. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE COUNTRY STORE 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- THE COUNTRY STORE 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HERNANDEZ FUNERAL HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TXDOT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ECONOMY FOOD & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- HEB 013Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- M&D CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ISLAS NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- EL TIGRE FOOD STORE 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER 1958Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- EL TIGRE FOOD STORE 17Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- MURPHY USA 7630Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Rancho Vela'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 Rancho Vela.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of El Rancho Vela
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of El Rancho Vela
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of El Rancho Vela
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Rancho Vela, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of El Rancho Vela — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (54 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in El Rancho Vela
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 Rancho Vela average
Your land is one point inside El Rancho Vela
Everything above resolves to El Rancho Vela as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 83 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Starr County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Rancho Vela Average
El Rancho Vela Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across El Rancho Vela
- ●One soil character for all of El Rancho Vela
- ●Frost dates read at El Rancho Vela's scale: Jan 21 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Rancho Vela's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in El Rancho Vela
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Rancho Vela, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Rancho Vela averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Rancho Vela — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Rancho Vela average
How we know this about El Rancho Vela
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Starr 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Rancho Vela
When does frost risk typically end in El Rancho Vela?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Rancho Vela typically lands around Jan 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in El Rancho Vela?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in El Rancho Vela typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 322 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in El Rancho Vela?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Rancho Vela sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 21 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 11 to Nov 25, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Rancho Vela?
The federal record around El Rancho Vela is a meaningful one — 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 El Rancho Vela?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at El Rancho Vela's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Rancho Vela'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 Rancho Vela’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at El Rancho Vela's own scale — the 83 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Rancho Vela's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near El Rancho Vela, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- El Rancho Vela's boundary and the 83 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at El Rancho Vela's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — El Rancho Vela has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Starr County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so El Rancho Vela's 83 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Starr County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Starr 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 Starr County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among El Rancho Vela's 83 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of El Rancho Vela you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 83 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Rancho Vela-wide figureread your own land →
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