Kingsville, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Kingsville, 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 Kingsville 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 Kingsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kingsville — the short answer
Kingsville, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 316 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 1
- Kleberg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Kleberg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~316
- Kleberg 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 Kleberg County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Kingsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kingsville's 316-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kingsville
Each reading below is measured for Kingsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKingsville runs about 316 days between hard freezes (read from Kleberg County, the closest normal to Kingsville) — 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
MeasuredKingsville 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 Kingsville is in
Kingsville sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kingsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kleberg County.
What Grows in Kingsville
Every plant below cleared Kingsville's own zone 9b and its 316-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kingsville?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Kingsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kingsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE MAN SHOP CLEANERS AND TUXEDO RENTALSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- GAITHER AIR CONDITIONINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #1954Brownfields · 1600 ft
- HERMAN OHLENBUSCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WALTER C JOHNSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SUNNY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CORNER STORE 106Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EDDIES USED CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- KINGSVILLE SERVICE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TIMES MARKET 108Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STATE FARM INSURANCE AGENCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KINGSVILLE SOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kingsville'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 Kingsville.
Total Sites
225
within ~10 miles of Kingsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kingsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kingsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kingsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kingsville — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (153 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kingsville
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 Kingsville average
Your land is one point inside Kingsville
Everything above resolves to Kingsville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kleberg 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 Kingsville Average
Kingsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Kingsville
- ●One soil character for all of Kingsville
- ●Frost dates read at Kingsville's scale: Feb 1 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kingsville's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kingsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kingsville, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kingsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kingsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kingsville average
How we know this about Kingsville
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 Kleberg 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 Kingsville
When does frost risk typically end in Kingsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kingsville typically lands around Feb 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Kingsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kingsville typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 316 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kingsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kingsville sees about 316 frost-free days — roughly Feb 1 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 22 to Nov 30, about 281 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kingsville?
The federal record around Kingsville is a meaningful one — 225 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Kingsville?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kingsville's scale — its 9b band and its 316-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kingsville'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 Kingsville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kingsville's own scale — the 8,885 acres it covers and 225 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kingsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 225 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kingsville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kingsville's boundary and the 8,885 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~316-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kingsville's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kingsville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kleberg County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kingsville's 8,885 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kleberg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kleberg 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 Kleberg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kingsville's 8,885 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kingsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,885 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Kingsville-wide figureread your own land →
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