Nocona, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nocona, 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 Nocona 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 Nocona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nocona — the short answer
Nocona, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Nocona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nocona's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nocona
Each reading below is measured for Nocona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNocona runs about 253 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNocona sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Nocona is in
Nocona sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nocona's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Montague County is mostly Cross Timbers. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Nocona
Every plant below cleared Nocona's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nocona?
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 Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Nocona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nocona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FENOGLIO STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CLARK TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GOLDIES AUTO SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PRIVATE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LONE STAR LIQUORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ROADRUNNER LIQUORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KOUNTRY KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- D & B TRUCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- THE ARROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CITY OF NOCONA BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HANDY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ONE STOP CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nocona'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 Nocona.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Nocona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nocona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nocona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nocona, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Nocona. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Nocona
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 Nocona average
Your land is one point inside Nocona
Everything above resolves to Nocona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. 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 Nocona Average
Nocona Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Nocona
- ●One soil character for all of Nocona
- ●Frost dates read at Nocona's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nocona's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nocona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nocona, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nocona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nocona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nocona average
How we know this about Nocona
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 Nocona’s own record; 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 Nocona
When does frost risk typically end in Nocona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nocona typically lands around Mar 12, 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 Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Nocona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nocona typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nocona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nocona sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 6, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nocona?
The federal record around Nocona shows 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), 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 Nocona?
From about Oct 21 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 Nov 20 (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 Nov 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nocona's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nocona'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 Nocona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nocona's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,802 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nocona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nocona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 20 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nocona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nocona's boundary and the 1,802 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Nocona sits in the Central Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nocona's 1,802 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montague County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montague 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 Montague County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nocona's 1,802 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nocona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,802 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 Nocona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasNocona sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides