Forsan, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Forsan, 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 Forsan 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 Forsan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Forsan — the short answer
Forsan, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 186 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 186 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Forsan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forsan's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forsan
Each reading below is measured for Forsan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForsan runs about 256 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredForsan 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 Forsan is in
Forsan sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Forsan's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Howard County is mostly High Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Forsan
Every plant below cleared Forsan's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forsan?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Forsan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forsan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORSANToxics Release Inventory · 600 ft
- PB-28-62-106Nitrate · 1100 ft
- KERR-MCGEE HOWARD COUNTY SPILLSuperfund · 3.1 mi
- BASIN PIPE LINE BIG SPRING STATIONBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- BUFFALO COUNTRY UNCLES 130216Underground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- SUN OIL CO WEST HOWARD GLASSCOCK UNITBrownfields · 8.3 mi
- SUN OIL CO WEST HOWARD GLASSCOCK WPMBrownfields · 8.3 mi
- RAWHIDE GAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 8.4 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES - BIG SPRING, TEXASToxics Release Inventory · 8.6 mi
- NALCO BIG SPRINGBrownfields · 8.8 mi
- BJ CHEMICAL SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 9.0 mi
- KYDEESUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
Measured from Forsan'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 Forsan.
Total Sites
15
within ~10 miles of Forsan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forsan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forsan
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Forsan
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 Forsan average
Your land is one point inside Forsan
Everything above resolves to Forsan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 186 acres. 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 Forsan Average
Forsan Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Forsan
- ●One soil character for all of Forsan
- ●Frost dates read at Forsan's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forsan's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forsan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forsan, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forsan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forsan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forsan average
How we know this about Forsan
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 Forsan’s own record; 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 Forsan
When does frost risk typically end in Forsan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forsan typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Forsan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forsan typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forsan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forsan sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 6, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forsan?
The federal record around Forsan is a meaningful one — 15 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Forsan?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forsan's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forsan'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 Forsan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Forsan's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 186 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forsan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forsan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 20 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forsan, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forsan's boundary and the 186 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Forsan sits in the Edwards Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forsan's 186 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forsan's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forsan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Forsan-wide figureread your own land →