Needville, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Needville, 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 Needville 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 Needville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Needville — the short answer
Needville, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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
- 1K 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 Needville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Needville's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Needville
Each reading below is measured for Needville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNeedville runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Fort Bend County, the closest normal to Needville) — 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
MeasuredNeedville 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 Needville is in
Needville sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Needville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fort Bend County.
What Grows in Needville
Every plant below cleared Needville'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 Needville?
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.
What's on the federal record near Needville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Needville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORT BEND COUNTY PRECINCT 1Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CONSOLIDATED COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CONSOLIDATED COMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CITY OF NEEDVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NEEDVILLE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KWIK CHECK DRIVE IN GROCERIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CITY OF NEEDVILLE MAINT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- 0Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BARBINS SUPER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUNNYS 360Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- C RS PIZZA SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JY-65-34-703Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Needville'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 Needville.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Needville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Needville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Needville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Needville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Needville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Needville
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 Needville average
Your land is one point inside Needville
Everything above resolves to Needville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K 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 Needville Average
Needville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Needville
- ●One soil character for all of Needville
- ●Frost dates read at Needville's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Needville's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Needville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Needville, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Needville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Needville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Needville average
How we know this about Needville
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 Needville
When does frost risk typically end in Needville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Needville 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 Needville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Needville 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 Needville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Needville 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 Needville?
The federal record around Needville shows 133 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Needville?
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 Needville's scale — its 9b band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Needville'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 Needville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Needville's own scale — the 1,285 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Needville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Needville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Needville's boundary and the 1,285 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 Needville's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Needville 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 Needville's 1,285 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 Needville's 1,285 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Needville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,285 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Needville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasNeedville sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides