La Victoria, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in La Victoria, 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 Victoria 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 Victoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Victoria — the short answer
La Victoria, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 195 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 21
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 195 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 Starr County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is La Victoria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Victoria's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Victoria
Each reading below is measured for La Victoria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLa Victoria runs about 322 days between hard freezes (read from Starr County, the closest normal to La Victoria) — 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 Victoria 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 Victoria is in
La Victoria sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at La Victoria's own centroid rather than borrowed from Starr County.
What Grows in La Victoria
Every plant below cleared La Victoria's own zone 9b and its 322-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Victoria?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 La Victoria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Victoria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6039Brownfields · 1900 ft
- EL ALTO COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40601Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CIRCLE 7 EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GARCIAS GROCERY & AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- RIO GRANDE GROWERS COOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- J & L CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- J & R FEEDLOTCAFO · 5.0 mi
- AGUA SUDPFAS · 6.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40633Underground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 564Brownfields · 6.3 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8196Brownfields · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Victoria'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 Victoria.
Total Sites
22
within ~10 miles of La Victoria
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Victoria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Victoria
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.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in La Victoria
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 Victoria average
Your land is one point inside La Victoria
Everything above resolves to La Victoria as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 195 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Starr 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 Victoria Average
La Victoria Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across La Victoria
- ●One soil character for all of La Victoria
- ●Frost dates read at La Victoria's scale: Jan 21 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Victoria's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Victoria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Victoria, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Victoria averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Victoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Victoria average
How we know this about La Victoria
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 Starr 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 Victoria
When does frost risk typically end in La Victoria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Victoria typically lands around Jan 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in La Victoria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Victoria typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 322 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Victoria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Victoria sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 21 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 11 to Nov 25, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Victoria?
The federal record around La Victoria shows 22 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (14), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Victoria?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Victoria's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Victoria'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 Victoria’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at La Victoria's own scale — the 195 acres it covers and 22 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Victoria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 22 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Victoria, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Victoria's boundary and the 195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Victoria's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — La Victoria has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Starr County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Victoria's 195 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Starr County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Starr 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 Starr County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Victoria's 195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Victoria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 195 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Victoria-wide figureread your own land →