La Coma, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in La Coma, 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 La Coma 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 La Coma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
La Coma — the short answer
La Coma, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 780 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 780 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 Webb County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is La Coma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Coma's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Coma
Each reading below is measured for La Coma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLa Coma runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Webb County, the closest normal to La Coma) — 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
MeasuredLa Coma 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 La Coma is in
La Coma sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at La Coma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webb County.
What Grows in La Coma
Every plant below cleared La Coma's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Coma?
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 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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 La Coma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Coma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROTHERS MATERIALS LTDBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- YZ-85-30-501Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- CITY OF LAREDO LANDFILLBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- CHIEFS FOOD MART & RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- YZ-85-37-205Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- MOLINAS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #1534Brownfields · 7.9 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40925Underground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- WEBB COUNTY RD & BRIDGE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40923Underground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- YZ-85-37-206Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- YZ-85-39-201Nitrate · 8.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Coma'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 La Coma.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Coma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Coma
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in La Coma
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 La Coma average
Your land is one point inside La Coma
Everything above resolves to La Coma as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 780 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Webb 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 La Coma Average
La Coma Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across La Coma
- ●One soil character for all of La Coma
- ●Frost dates read at La Coma's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Coma's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Coma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Coma, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Coma averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Coma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Coma average
How we know this about La Coma
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 Webb 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 La Coma
When does frost risk typically end in La Coma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Coma typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in La Coma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Coma typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Coma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Coma sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 3, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Coma?
The federal record around La Coma shows 55 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.7 miles 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 La Coma?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Coma's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Coma'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 La Coma’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at La Coma's own scale — the 780 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Coma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Coma, the closest Brownfields record about 2.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Coma's boundary and the 780 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Coma's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — La Coma has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Webb County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Coma's 780 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webb 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 Webb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Coma's 780 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Coma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 780 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.7 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 La Coma-wide figureread your own land →