Port Lavaca, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Port Lavaca, 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 Port Lavaca 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 Port Lavaca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Lavaca — the short answer
Port Lavaca, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~324
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Calhoun County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Port Lavaca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Lavaca's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Lavaca
Each reading below is measured for Port Lavaca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Lavaca runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Calhoun County, the closest normal to Port Lavaca) — 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
MeasuredPort Lavaca 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 Port Lavaca is in
Port Lavaca sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Port Lavaca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Port Lavaca
Every plant below cleared Port Lavaca's own zone 9b and its 324-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Lavaca?
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 Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — 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 Port Lavaca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Lavaca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PORT LAVACA CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CALHOUN COUNTY ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MIKES AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TIMES MARKET 101 7060Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- COASTAL MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DUMAS USED CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MARSHALL CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CITY OF PORT LAVACAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BENES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- L B BENES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BAYFRONT MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Lavaca'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 Port Lavaca.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Lavaca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Lavaca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Lavaca, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 105 sites within ~10 miles of Port Lavaca. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Port Lavaca
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 Port Lavaca average
Your land is one point inside Port Lavaca
Everything above resolves to Port Lavaca as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calhoun 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 Port Lavaca Average
Port Lavaca Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Port Lavaca
- ●One soil character for all of Port Lavaca
- ●Frost dates read at Port Lavaca's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Lavaca's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Lavaca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Lavaca, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Lavaca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Lavaca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Lavaca average
How we know this about Port Lavaca
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 Calhoun 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 Port Lavaca
When does frost risk typically end in Port Lavaca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Lavaca typically lands around Jan 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Port Lavaca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Lavaca typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 324 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Lavaca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Lavaca sees about 324 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Dec 4, about 289 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Lavaca?
The federal record around Port Lavaca is a meaningful one — 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Port Lavaca?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Lavaca's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Lavaca'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 Port Lavaca’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Port Lavaca's own scale — the 6,497 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Lavaca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Lavaca, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Lavaca's boundary and the 6,497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~324-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Lavaca's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Lavaca has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calhoun County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Lavaca's 6,497 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun 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 Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Lavaca's 6,497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Lavaca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,497 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Port Lavaca-wide figureread your own land →
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