Missouri City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Missouri City, 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 Missouri City 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 Missouri City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Missouri City — the short answer
Missouri City, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~319
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 19K 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 Fort Bend County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Missouri City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Missouri City's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Missouri City
Each reading below is measured for Missouri City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMissouri City runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Fort Bend County, the closest normal to Missouri City) — 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
MeasuredMissouri City 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 Missouri City is in
Missouri City sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Missouri City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fort Bend County.
What Grows in Missouri City
Every plant below cleared Missouri City's own zone 9b and its 319-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Missouri City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Missouri City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Missouri City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 489 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Missouri City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Missouri City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THUNDERBIRD U D WATER PLANT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LAKE OLYMPIA TRANSPORTATION TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- THUNDERBIRD UD WATER PLANT 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LAKE OLYMPIA SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- QUAIL VALLEY GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- QUAIL VLY UD SEWAGE TRTMT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RAS 6 9355Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SAFEWAY 1015Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- QUAIL VALLEY MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- M PEES FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- STOP N GO 2422 CARTWRIGHT RDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- STOP N GO MARKETS 951Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Missouri City'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 Missouri City.
Total Sites
1,343
within ~10 miles of Missouri City
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Missouri City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Missouri City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Missouri City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Missouri City — CAFO (108 sites) and PFAS (26 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Missouri City
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 Missouri City average
Your land is one point inside Missouri City
Everything above resolves to Missouri City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 19K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fort Bend 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 Missouri City Average
Missouri City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Missouri City
- ●One soil character for all of Missouri City
- ●Frost dates read at Missouri City's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Missouri City's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Missouri City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Missouri City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Missouri City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Missouri City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Missouri City average
How we know this about Missouri City
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 Fort Bend 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 Missouri City
When does frost risk typically end in Missouri City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Missouri City typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Missouri City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Missouri City typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 319 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Missouri City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Missouri City sees about 319 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 28, about 284 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Missouri City?
The federal record around Missouri City runs heavier than most — 1,343 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (806), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Missouri City?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Missouri City's scale — its 9b band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Missouri City'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 Missouri City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Missouri City's own scale — the 18,573 acres it covers and 1,343 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Missouri City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,343 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Missouri City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Missouri City's boundary and the 18,573 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~319-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Missouri City's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Missouri City checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Missouri City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fort Bend County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Missouri City's 18,573 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fort Bend County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fort Bend 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 Fort Bend County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Missouri City's 18,573 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Missouri City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,573 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Missouri City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasMissouri City sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides