Odem, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Odem, 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 Odem 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 Odem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Odem — the short answer
Odem, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 815 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 815 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 San Patricio County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Odem's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Odem's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Odem
Each reading below is measured for Odem itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOdem runs about 322 days between hard freezes (read from San Patricio County, the closest normal to Odem) — 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
MeasuredOdem 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 Odem is in
Odem sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Odem's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Patricio County.
What Grows in Odem
Every plant below cleared Odem's own zone 9b and its 322-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Odem?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 24 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Odem
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Odem. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPARTAN SPECIALTY COMPANIESBrownfields · 350 ft
- CIRCLE K STORE 2706976Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SNAPPY FOODS 1Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SNAPPY FOODS 9Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SNAPPY FOODS 6Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40812Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ODEM EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KERR MCGEE 9088Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- E H GREEN MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ODEM STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CITY OF ODEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPC PRECINCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Odem'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 Odem.
Total Sites
280
within ~10 miles of Odem
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Odem
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Odem
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Odem, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 175 sites within ~10 miles of Odem. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Odem
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 Odem average
Your land is one point inside Odem
Everything above resolves to Odem as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 815 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Patricio 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 Odem Average
Odem Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Odem
- ●One soil character for all of Odem
- ●Frost dates read at Odem's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Odem's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Odem
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Odem, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Odem averages can't show:
We read public map data around Odem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Odem average
How we know this about Odem
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 San Patricio 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 Odem
When does frost risk typically end in Odem?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Odem typically lands around Jan 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Odem?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Odem 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 322 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Odem?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Odem sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Nov 28, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Odem?
The federal record around Odem is a meaningful one — 280 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (175), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Odem?
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 Odem's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Odem'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 Odem’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Odem's own scale — the 815 acres it covers and 280 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Odem's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 280 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Odem, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Odem's boundary and the 815 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Odem's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Odem has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Patricio County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Odem's 815 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Patricio County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Patricio 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 San Patricio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Odem's 815 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Odem you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 815 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Odem-wide figureread your own land →
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