Fresno, 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.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Fresno, 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 Fresno 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 Fresno — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fresno — the short answer
Fresno, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~319
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Fort Bend County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Fresno's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fresno's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fresno
Each reading below is measured for Fresno itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFresno runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Fort Bend County, the closest normal to Fresno) — 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
MeasuredFresno 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 Fresno is in
Fresno sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fresno's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fort Bend County.
What Grows in Fresno
Every plant below cleared Fresno's own zone 9b and its 319-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fresno?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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.
Documented around Fresno
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fresno checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 485 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fresno
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fresno. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LA FRESNO FOOD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FORT BEND COUNTY MUD 23PFAS · 1400 ft
- FRESNO FIESTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WELCOME MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- E&S MORENO TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FRESNO LEGRANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FRESNO GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- NALCO WATER FRESNO TEXAS FACILITYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- NALCO WATER FRESNO TEXAS FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES ANHYDROUS AMMONIA RELEASESuperfund · 1.3 mi
- JY-65-29-808Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- ATHLON SOLUTIONS EVERGREEN FACILITYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fresno'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 Fresno.
Total Sites
952
within ~10 miles of Fresno
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fresno
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fresno
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fresno, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fresno — PFAS (19 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (69 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fresno
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 Fresno average
Your land is one point inside Fresno
Everything above resolves to Fresno as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fort Bend 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 Fresno Average
Fresno Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Fresno
- ●One soil character for all of Fresno
- ●Frost dates read at Fresno's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fresno's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fresno
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fresno, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fresno averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fresno — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fresno average
How we know this about Fresno
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 Fort Bend 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 Fresno
When does frost risk typically end in Fresno?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fresno typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Fresno?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fresno typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 319 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fresno?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fresno sees about 319 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 28, about 284 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fresno?
The federal record around Fresno runs heavier than most — 952 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (609), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fresno?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fresno's scale — its 9b band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fresno'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 Fresno’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fresno's own scale — the 5,459 acres it covers and 952 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fresno's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 952 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fresno, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fresno's boundary and the 5,459 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~319-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fresno's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fresno checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fresno has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fort Bend County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fresno's 5,459 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fort Bend County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fort Bend 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 Fort Bend County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fresno's 5,459 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fresno you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,459 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fresno-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasFresno sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides