Fort Hood, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Fort Hood, 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 Fort Hood 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 Fort Hood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Hood — the short answer
Fort Hood, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Coryell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Coryell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Coryell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 Coryell County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Fort Hood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Hood's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Hood
Each reading below is measured for Fort Hood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Hood runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Coryell County, the closest normal to Fort Hood) — 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
MeasuredFort Hood sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Fort Hood is in
Fort Hood sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fort Hood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coryell County.
What Grows in Fort Hood
Every plant below cleared Fort Hood's own zone 8b and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Hood?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Fort Hood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Hood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US ARMY FORT HOOD RANGE FACILITYSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- US ARMY FORT HOOD RANGE FACILITYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- US ARMY FORT HOOD RANGE FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- FORT HOOD READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- CENTRAL TEXAS COLLEGE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- US ARMY FORT HOODToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- METROPLEX ADVENTIST HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- METROPLEX HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GREENLEAF CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AAFES KOUMA EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 27860Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 21213Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Hood'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 Fort Hood.
Total Sites
333
within ~10 miles of Fort Hood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Hood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Hood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Hood, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 245 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Hood. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Hood
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 Fort Hood average
Your land is one point inside Fort Hood
Everything above resolves to Fort Hood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 12K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Coryell 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 Fort Hood Average
Fort Hood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Fort Hood
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Hood
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Hood's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Hood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Hood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Hood, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Hood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Hood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Hood average
How we know this about Fort Hood
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 Coryell 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 Fort Hood
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Hood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Hood typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fort Hood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Hood typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Hood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Hood sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 17, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Hood?
The federal record around Fort Hood is a meaningful one — 333 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (245), the nearest Superfund record about 0.7 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 Fort Hood?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Hood's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Hood'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 Fort Hood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Hood's own scale — the 12,392 acres it covers and 333 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Hood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 333 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Hood, the closest Superfund record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Hood's boundary and the 12,392 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Hood's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Hood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Coryell County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Hood's 12,392 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coryell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coryell 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 Coryell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Hood's 12,392 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Hood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,392 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.7 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 Fort Hood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasFort Hood sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides