Hutto, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hutto, 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 Hutto 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 Hutto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hutto — the short answer
Hutto, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Williamson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Hutto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hutto's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hutto
Each reading below is measured for Hutto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHutto runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Williamson County, the closest normal to Hutto) — 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
MeasuredHutto sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Hutto is in
Hutto sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hutto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Williamson County.
What Grows in Hutto
Every plant below cleared Hutto's own zone 9a and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hutto?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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.
Documented around Hutto
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hutto checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 604 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hutto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hutto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WAG-A-BAG 18Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HUTTO COOPERATIVE GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HUTTO SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- C L PIMPLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HUTTO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WAG-A-BAG 9Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HUTTO ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HUTTO GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TESLA HUTTOBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8847Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE 8439Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- LOWES OF HUTTO 2670Brownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hutto'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 Hutto.
Total Sites
455
within ~10 miles of Hutto
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
41 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hutto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hutto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hutto, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hutto — PFAS (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (41 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hutto
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 Hutto average
Your land is one point inside Hutto
Everything above resolves to Hutto as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Williamson County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Hutto Average
Hutto Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Hutto
- ●One soil character for all of Hutto
- ●Frost dates read at Hutto's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hutto's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hutto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hutto, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hutto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hutto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hutto average
How we know this about Hutto
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 Williamson 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 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 Hutto
When does frost risk typically end in Hutto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hutto typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Hutto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hutto typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hutto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hutto sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 18, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hutto?
The federal record around Hutto runs heavier than most — 455 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (283), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hutto?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hutto's scale — its 9a band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hutto'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 Hutto’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hutto's own scale — the 9,465 acres it covers and 455 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hutto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 455 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hutto, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hutto's boundary and the 9,465 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hutto's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hutto checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hutto has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Williamson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hutto's 9,465 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williamson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williamson 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 Williamson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hutto's 9,465 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hutto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,465 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hutto-wide figureread your own land →
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