Rancho Alegre, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Rancho Alegre, 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 Rancho Alegre 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 Rancho Alegre — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rancho Alegre — the short answer
Rancho Alegre, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 818 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 818 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 Jim Wells County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Rancho Alegre's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rancho Alegre's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rancho Alegre
Each reading below is measured for Rancho Alegre itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRancho Alegre runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Jim Wells County, the closest normal to Rancho Alegre) — 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
MeasuredRancho Alegre 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 Rancho Alegre is in
Rancho Alegre sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rancho Alegre's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jim Wells County.
What Grows in Rancho Alegre
Every plant below cleared Rancho Alegre's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rancho Alegre?
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 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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 Rancho Alegre
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rancho Alegre. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEX BEST TRAVEL CENTER 524Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NU-WAY 126Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GARCES QUICK WAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #11699Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- PREMONT COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SEELIGSON GAS 34C1B38250Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GMACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ARROWHEAD AIRSTRIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FIESTA MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PRIDE OIL WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ADCOCK PIPE & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NU-WAY OIL 89Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rancho Alegre'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 Rancho Alegre.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Rancho Alegre
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rancho Alegre
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rancho Alegre
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rancho Alegre, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 163 sites within ~10 miles of Rancho Alegre. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Rancho Alegre
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 Rancho Alegre average
Your land is one point inside Rancho Alegre
Everything above resolves to Rancho Alegre as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 818 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jim Wells 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 Rancho Alegre Average
Rancho Alegre Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Rancho Alegre
- ●One soil character for all of Rancho Alegre
- ●Frost dates read at Rancho Alegre's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rancho Alegre's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rancho Alegre
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rancho Alegre, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rancho Alegre averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rancho Alegre — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rancho Alegre average
How we know this about Rancho Alegre
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 Jim Wells 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 Rancho Alegre
When does frost risk typically end in Rancho Alegre?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rancho Alegre typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Rancho Alegre?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rancho Alegre typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rancho Alegre?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rancho Alegre sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 30, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rancho Alegre?
The federal record around Rancho Alegre shows 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Rancho Alegre?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rancho Alegre's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rancho Alegre'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 Rancho Alegre’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rancho Alegre's own scale — the 818 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rancho Alegre's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rancho Alegre, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rancho Alegre's boundary and the 818 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rancho Alegre's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rancho Alegre has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jim Wells County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rancho Alegre's 818 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jim Wells County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jim Wells 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 Jim Wells County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rancho Alegre's 818 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rancho Alegre you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 818 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Rancho Alegre-wide figureread your own land →
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