Pharr, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pharr, 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 Pharr 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 Pharr — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pharr — the short answer
Pharr, Texas: USDA zone 10a, about 341 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- Hidalgo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 23
- Hidalgo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~341
- Hidalgo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Hidalgo County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Pharr's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pharr's 341-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pharr
Each reading below is measured for Pharr itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPharr runs about 341 days between hard freezes (read from Hidalgo County, the closest normal to Pharr) — 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
MeasuredPharr sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Pharr is in
Pharr sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pharr's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hidalgo County.
What Grows in Pharr
Every plant below cleared Pharr's own zone 10a and its 341-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pharr?
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 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 23 — 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 Pharr
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pharr. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF PHARRPFAS · 25 ft
- TEJANO MART 513Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- E-Z MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PHARR TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ESSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AZIZ CONVENIENCE STORES 31Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HEB 642Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40617Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40627Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- STRIPES 2560Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CITY OF PHARR PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- VALLEY SHAMROCK 7Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pharr'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 Pharr.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pharr
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pharr
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pharr, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pharr — Underground Storage Tanks (617 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Pharr
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 Pharr average
Your land is one point inside Pharr
Everything above resolves to Pharr as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hidalgo 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 Pharr Average
Pharr Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Pharr
- ●One soil character for all of Pharr
- ●Frost dates read at Pharr's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pharr's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pharr
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pharr, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pharr averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pharr — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pharr average
How we know this about Pharr
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 Hidalgo 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 Pharr
When does frost risk typically end in Pharr?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pharr typically lands around Jan 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Pharr?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pharr typically arrives around Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 9, so the watching starts about Nov 23 — about 341 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pharr?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pharr sees about 341 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Dec 9, about 306 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pharr?
The federal record around Pharr is a meaningful one — 811 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (617), the nearest PFAS 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 Pharr?
From about Nov 23 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 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 Dec 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pharr's scale — its 10a band and its 341-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pharr'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 Pharr’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pharr's own scale — the 15,469 acres it covers and 811 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pharr's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 811 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pharr, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pharr's boundary and the 15,469 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~341-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pharr's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pharr has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hidalgo County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pharr's 15,469 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hidalgo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pharr's 15,469 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pharr you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,469 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Pharr-wide figureread your own land →
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