Odessa, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Odessa, 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 Odessa 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 Odessa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Odessa — the short answer
Odessa, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 33K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 33K 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 8b is Odessa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Odessa's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Odessa
Each reading below is measured for Odessa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOdessa runs about 262 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredOdessa sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Odessa is in
Odessa sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Odessa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ector County.
What Grows in Odessa
Every plant below cleared Odessa's own zone 8b and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Odessa?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Odessa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Odessa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-ELEVEN 57102Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 7 ELEVEN 57138Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FASTRAX 106Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 57115Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BECKNERS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GRANDVIEW 66 SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TARGET STORE T1506Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- OKLAHOMA INSTALLATION COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MONTGOMERY WARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WAL-MART STORE 537Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HEB 387Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RAS 6 0669Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Odessa'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 Odessa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Odessa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Odessa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Odessa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Odessa — Toxics Release Inventory (75 sites) and Superfund (14 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Odessa
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 Odessa average
Your land is one point inside Odessa
Everything above resolves to Odessa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 33K 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 Odessa Average
Odessa Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Odessa
- ●One soil character for all of Odessa
- ●Frost dates read at Odessa's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Odessa's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Odessa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Odessa, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Odessa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Odessa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Odessa average
How we know this about Odessa
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 Odessa’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 Odessa
When does frost risk typically end in Odessa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Odessa typically lands around Mar 6, 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 Mar 27.
When is the first frost in Odessa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Odessa typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Odessa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Odessa sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 9, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Odessa?
The federal record around Odessa runs heavier than most — 873 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (573), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Odessa?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Odessa's scale — its 8b band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Odessa'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 Odessa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Odessa's own scale — its own ~262-day season between 28°F freezes, the 33,309 acres it covers and 873 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Odessa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Odessa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 23 and the ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 873 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Odessa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Odessa's boundary and the 33,309 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Odessa's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Odessa's 33,309 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ector County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ector 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 Ector County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Odessa's 33,309 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Odessa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 33,309 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Odessa-wide figureread your own land →