Rancho Banquete, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rancho Banquete, 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 Banquete 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 Banquete — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rancho Banquete — the short answer
Rancho Banquete, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Nueces County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Rancho Banquete's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rancho Banquete's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rancho Banquete
Each reading below is measured for Rancho Banquete itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRancho Banquete runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Nueces County, the closest normal to Rancho Banquete) — 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 Banquete 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 Banquete is in
Rancho Banquete sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rancho Banquete's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nueces County.
What Grows in Rancho Banquete
Every plant below cleared Rancho Banquete's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rancho Banquete?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 26 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Rancho Banquete
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rancho Banquete. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAMIRO RODRIGUEZBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- ABSOLUTE INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- UB-83-10-203Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- BANQUETE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- UB-83-10-501Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- REN SERVICESBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- BANQUETE ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- PENAS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- UB-83-10-806Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- UB-83-09-602Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- UB-83-10-602Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- LALOS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rancho Banquete'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 Banquete.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Rancho Banquete
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rancho Banquete
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rancho Banquete
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rancho Banquete, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Rancho Banquete. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rancho Banquete
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 Banquete average
Your land is one point inside Rancho Banquete
Everything above resolves to Rancho Banquete as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nueces 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 Banquete Average
Rancho Banquete Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Rancho Banquete
- ●One soil character for all of Rancho Banquete
- ●Frost dates read at Rancho Banquete's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rancho Banquete's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rancho Banquete
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rancho Banquete, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rancho Banquete averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rancho Banquete — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rancho Banquete average
How we know this about Rancho Banquete
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 Nueces 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 Banquete
When does frost risk typically end in Rancho Banquete?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rancho Banquete typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Rancho Banquete?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rancho Banquete 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 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rancho Banquete?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rancho Banquete sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 4, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rancho Banquete?
The federal record around Rancho Banquete shows 59 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Banquete?
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 Rancho Banquete's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rancho Banquete'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 Banquete’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rancho Banquete's own scale — the 1,833 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rancho Banquete's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rancho Banquete, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rancho Banquete's boundary and the 1,833 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rancho Banquete's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rancho Banquete has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nueces County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rancho Banquete's 1,833 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nueces County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nueces 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 Nueces County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rancho Banquete's 1,833 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rancho Banquete you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,833 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Banquete-wide figureread your own land →