Pearsall, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pearsall, 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 Pearsall 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 Pearsall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pearsall — the short answer
Pearsall, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 302 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- Frio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Frio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~302
- Frio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Frio County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Pearsall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pearsall's 302-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pearsall
Each reading below is measured for Pearsall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPearsall runs about 302 days between hard freezes (read from Frio County, the closest normal to Pearsall) — 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
MeasuredPearsall sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Pearsall is in
Pearsall sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pearsall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Frio County.
What Grows in Pearsall
Every plant below cleared Pearsall's own zone 9a and its 302-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pearsall?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Pearsall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pearsall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WOLF CAR CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CACTUS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DONNINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SANCHEZS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- QUIK SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- KB-77-08-713Nitrate · 950 ft
- SHAMROCK SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ROYS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- STRONGS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FUEL STATION 9Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RAMIREZ EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CITY OF PEARSALL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pearsall'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 Pearsall.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Pearsall
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pearsall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pearsall
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pearsall, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Pearsall. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Pearsall
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 Pearsall average
Your land is one point inside Pearsall
Everything above resolves to Pearsall as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Frio 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 Pearsall Average
Pearsall Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Pearsall
- ●One soil character for all of Pearsall
- ●Frost dates read at Pearsall's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pearsall's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pearsall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pearsall, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pearsall averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pearsall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pearsall average
How we know this about Pearsall
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 Frio 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 Pearsall
When does frost risk typically end in Pearsall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pearsall typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Pearsall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pearsall typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 302 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pearsall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pearsall sees about 302 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 23, about 267 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pearsall?
The federal record around Pearsall shows 89 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), 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 Pearsall?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pearsall's scale — its 9a band and its 302-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pearsall'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 Pearsall’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pearsall's own scale — the 4,191 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pearsall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pearsall, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pearsall's boundary and the 4,191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~302-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pearsall's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pearsall has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Frio County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pearsall's 4,191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Frio County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Frio 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 Frio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pearsall's 4,191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pearsall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,191 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 Pearsall-wide figureread your own land →