Presidio, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, okra, black-eyed pea, tomato, and jalapeno all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Presidio, 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 Presidio 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 Presidio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Presidio — the short answer
Presidio, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- Presidio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- Presidio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- Presidio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Presidio County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Presidio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Presidio's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Presidio
Each reading below is measured for Presidio itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPresidio runs about 239 days between hard freezes (read from Presidio County, the closest normal to Presidio) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPresidio 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 Presidio is in
Presidio sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Presidio's own centroid rather than borrowed from Presidio County.
What Grows in Presidio
Plants matched to Presidio's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Presidio?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Presidio
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Presidio. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TXDOT PRESIDIO MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PRESIDIO ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2553Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LARA DY CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PRESIDIO STOCKYARDSCAFO · 0.7 mi
- EL PABELLON OF PRESIDIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BAEZA CATTLECAFO · 1.3 mi
- MILLINGTON ADDITIONSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- PRESIDIO 67Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PORTERS THRIFTWAY 160415Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Dos MariasMining · 2.6 mi
- Marias MineMining · 3.2 mi
2 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Presidio'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 Presidio.
Total Sites
15
within ~10 miles of Presidio
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Presidio
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Presidio
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Presidio
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 Presidio average
Your land is one point inside Presidio
Everything above resolves to Presidio as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Presidio 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 Presidio Average
Presidio Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Presidio
- ●One soil character for all of Presidio
- ●Frost dates read at Presidio's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Presidio's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Presidio
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Presidio, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Presidio averages can't show:
We read public map data around Presidio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Presidio average
How we know this about Presidio
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 Presidio 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 Presidio
When does frost risk typically end in Presidio?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Presidio typically lands around Mar 21, 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 Apr 11.
When is the first frost in Presidio?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Presidio typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Presidio?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Presidio sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 1, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Presidio?
The federal record around Presidio is a meaningful one — 15 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), 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 Presidio?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Presidio's scale — its 9a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Presidio'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 Presidio’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Presidio's own scale — the 1,648 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Presidio's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Presidio, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Presidio's boundary and the 1,648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Presidio's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Presidio has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Presidio County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Presidio's 1,648 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Presidio County
- The candidate plant list — Texas's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Texas
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Presidio 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 Presidio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Presidio's 1,648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Presidio you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,648 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 Presidio-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides