Manvel, 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 Manvel, 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 Manvel 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 Manvel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manvel — the short answer
Manvel, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 17K 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 Brazoria County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Manvel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manvel's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manvel
Each reading below is measured for Manvel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsManvel runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Brazoria County, the closest normal to Manvel) — 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
MeasuredManvel 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 Manvel is in
Manvel sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Manvel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brazoria County.
What Grows in Manvel
Every plant below cleared Manvel's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manvel?
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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Manvel
Survey cells within 31 miles of Manvel checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 479 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Manvel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manvel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRAZORIA COUNTY MUD 6PFAS · 0 ft
- COASTAL CIRCUITSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MANVEL C OUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CONCRETE BATCH PLANT 5Toxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- ALLIED PLANT 5 - MANVELToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- MANVEL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FUEL EXPRESS 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ALVIN ISD TRANSPORTATION DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CRAWFORD TRUCKSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40976Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- VACANT FORMER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MANVEL EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manvel'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 Manvel.
Total Sites
633
within ~10 miles of Manvel
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manvel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manvel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manvel, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Manvel — PFAS (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (47 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Manvel
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 Manvel average
Your land is one point inside Manvel
Everything above resolves to Manvel as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 17K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brazoria 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 Manvel Average
Manvel Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Manvel
- ●One soil character for all of Manvel
- ●Frost dates read at Manvel's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manvel's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manvel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manvel, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manvel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manvel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manvel average
How we know this about Manvel
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 Brazoria 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 Manvel
When does frost risk typically end in Manvel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manvel typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Manvel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manvel typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manvel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manvel sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 29, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manvel?
The federal record around Manvel runs heavier than most — 633 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (380), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Manvel?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manvel's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manvel'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 Manvel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Manvel's own scale — the 17,485 acres it covers and 633 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manvel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 633 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manvel, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manvel's boundary and the 17,485 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manvel's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Manvel checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Manvel has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brazoria County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manvel's 17,485 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brazoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brazoria 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 Brazoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manvel's 17,485 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manvel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,485 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Manvel-wide figureread your own land →
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