Proctor, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Proctor, 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 Proctor 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 Proctor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Proctor — the short answer
Proctor, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 259 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- Comanche County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Comanche County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~271
- Comanche County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 259 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 Comanche County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Proctor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Proctor's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Proctor
Each reading below is measured for Proctor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsProctor runs about 271 days between hard freezes (read from Comanche County, the closest normal to Proctor) — 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
MeasuredProctor 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 Proctor is in
Proctor sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Proctor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Comanche County.
What Grows in Proctor
Every plant below cleared Proctor's own zone 8b and its 271-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Proctor?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Proctor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Proctor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GORE BROTHERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- PROCTOR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PROCTOR HILL DAIRYCAFO · 0.9 mi
- OVERWHERE DAIRYCAFO · 1.8 mi
- NYL 23 DAIRYCAFO · 2.2 mi
- THE SHADE TREEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- LANTING DAIRYCAFO · 4.9 mi
- RANCHO PEPPERCAFO · 5.0 mi
- THOUSAND HILLS FARM LEGACY DIVISIONCAFO · 5.2 mi
- ROSE HILL DAIRY (TXG920166)CAFO · 5.4 mi
- DAY STAR RANCHCAFO · 5.8 mi
- DAY STAR DAIRYCAFO · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Proctor'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 Proctor.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Proctor
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Proctor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Proctor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Proctor, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 43 sites within ~10 miles of Proctor. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Proctor
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 Proctor average
Your land is one point inside Proctor
Everything above resolves to Proctor as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 259 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Comanche County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Proctor Average
Proctor Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Proctor
- ●One soil character for all of Proctor
- ●Frost dates read at Proctor's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Proctor's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Proctor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Proctor, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Proctor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Proctor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Proctor average
How we know this about Proctor
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Comanche 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Proctor
When does frost risk typically end in Proctor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Proctor typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Proctor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Proctor typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 271 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Proctor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Proctor sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 13, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Proctor?
The federal record around Proctor shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Proctor?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Proctor's scale — its 8b band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Proctor'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 Proctor’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Proctor's own scale — the 259 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Proctor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Proctor, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Proctor's boundary and the 259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Proctor's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Proctor has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Comanche County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Proctor's 259 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Comanche County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Comanche 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 Comanche County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Proctor's 259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Proctor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 259 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Proctor-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasProctor sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.