Morales-Sanchez, 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.
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 Morales-Sanchez, 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 Morales-Sanchez 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 Morales-Sanchez — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morales-Sanchez — the short answer
Morales-Sanchez, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 327 days between hard freezes, across 900 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- Zapata County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Zapata County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~327
- Zapata County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 900 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 Zapata County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Morales-Sanchez's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morales-Sanchez's 327-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morales-Sanchez
Each reading below is measured for Morales-Sanchez itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMorales-Sanchez runs about 327 days between hard freezes (read from Zapata County, the closest normal to Morales-Sanchez) — 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
MeasuredMorales-Sanchez 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 Morales-Sanchez is in
Morales-Sanchez sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Morales-Sanchez's own centroid rather than borrowed from Zapata County.
What Grows in Morales-Sanchez
Every plant below cleared Morales-Sanchez's own zone 9b and its 327-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morales-Sanchez?
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 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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 Morales-Sanchez
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morales-Sanchez. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PETRO HUNT CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BULLS STOP & GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- 7 DAYS EXPRESS 2Underground Storage Tanks · 9.7 mi
Measured from Morales-Sanchez'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 Morales-Sanchez.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morales-Sanchez
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Morales-Sanchez
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 Morales-Sanchez average
Your land is one point inside Morales-Sanchez
Everything above resolves to Morales-Sanchez as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 900 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Zapata 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 Morales-Sanchez Average
Morales-Sanchez Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Morales-Sanchez
- ●One soil character for all of Morales-Sanchez
- ●Frost dates read at Morales-Sanchez's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morales-Sanchez's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morales-Sanchez
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morales-Sanchez, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morales-Sanchez averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morales-Sanchez — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morales-Sanchez average
How we know this about Morales-Sanchez
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 Zapata 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 Morales-Sanchez
When does frost risk typically end in Morales-Sanchez?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morales-Sanchez typically lands around Jan 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Morales-Sanchez?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morales-Sanchez typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 327 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morales-Sanchez?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morales-Sanchez sees about 327 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Nov 26, about 292 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morales-Sanchez?
The federal record around Morales-Sanchez is light — 4 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (2), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Morales-Sanchez?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morales-Sanchez's scale — its 9b band and its 327-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morales-Sanchez'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 Morales-Sanchez’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Morales-Sanchez's own scale — the 900 acres it covers and 4 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morales-Sanchez's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 4 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morales-Sanchez, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morales-Sanchez's boundary and the 900 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~327-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morales-Sanchez's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Morales-Sanchez has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Zapata County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morales-Sanchez's 900 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Zapata County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Zapata 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 Zapata County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morales-Sanchez's 900 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morales-Sanchez you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 900 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Morales-Sanchez-wide figureread your own land →