Fort Stockton, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Stockton, 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 Stockton 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 Stockton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Stockton — the short answer
Fort Stockton, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 8b is Fort Stockton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Stockton's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Stockton
Each reading below is measured for Fort Stockton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Stockton runs about 278 days between hard freezes — 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 Stockton 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 Stockton is in
Fort Stockton sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fort Stockton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pecos County.
What Grows in Fort Stockton
Every plant below cleared Fort Stockton's own zone 8b and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Stockton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Fort Stockton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Stockton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KENT KWIK 402Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- T-STOP 11Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- STRIPES 5000Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- STOCKTON GULF SERIVCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- STOCKTON SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TOWN & COUNTRY 27Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HARRY THOMPSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER 553Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- TRANS-PECO SEEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 3-M SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- THRIFTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MID TOWN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Stockton'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 Stockton.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Fort Stockton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Stockton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Stockton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Stockton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Stockton. 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 Fort Stockton
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 Stockton average
Your land is one point inside Fort Stockton
Everything above resolves to Fort Stockton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Fort Stockton Average
Fort Stockton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Fort Stockton
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Stockton
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Stockton's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Stockton's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Stockton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Stockton, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Stockton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Stockton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Stockton average
How we know this about Fort Stockton
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 Fort Stockton’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 Fort Stockton
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Stockton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Stockton typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Fort Stockton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Stockton typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Stockton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Stockton sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 14, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Stockton?
The federal record around Fort Stockton shows 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fort Stockton?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Stockton's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Stockton'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 Stockton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Stockton's own scale — its own ~278-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,551 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Stockton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Stockton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 23 and Nov 28 and the ~278-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Stockton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Stockton's boundary and the 3,551 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Stockton's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Stockton's 3,551 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pecos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pecos 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 Pecos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Stockton's 3,551 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Stockton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,551 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 Fort Stockton-wide figureread your own land →
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