Sarita, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, black-eyed pea, tomato, and jalapeno — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sarita, 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 Sarita 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 Sarita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sarita — the short answer
Sarita, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 343 days between hard freezes, across 731 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 14
- Kenedy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 23
- Kenedy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~343
- Kenedy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 731 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 Kenedy County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Sarita's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sarita's 343-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sarita
Each reading below is measured for Sarita itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSarita runs about 343 days between hard freezes (read from Kenedy County, the closest normal to Sarita) — 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
MeasuredSarita 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 Sarita is in
Sarita sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sarita's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kenedy County.
What Grows in Sarita
Plants matched to Sarita's USDA zones 9b, 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 Sarita?
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 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 23 — 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 Sarita
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sarita. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RD-83-50-203Nitrate · 550 ft
- KENEDY COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RD-83-50-2xxNitrate · 1400 ft
- RD-83-50-307Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- RR-83-42-803Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- SNAPPY FOODS 12Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- STRIPES 2479Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- RR-83-42-502Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- RD-83-50-801Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40814Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- TETLP RIVIERA LINE 16-F MP 3.65Brownfields · 5.5 mi
- KLEBERG COUNTY PCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sarita'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 Sarita.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sarita
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sarita, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Sarita. 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 Sarita
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 Sarita average
Your land is one point inside Sarita
Everything above resolves to Sarita as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 731 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kenedy 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 Sarita Average
Sarita Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Sarita
- ●One soil character for all of Sarita
- ●Frost dates read at Sarita's scale: Jan 14 to Dec 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sarita's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sarita
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sarita, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sarita averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sarita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sarita average
How we know this about Sarita
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 Kenedy 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 Sarita
When does frost risk typically end in Sarita?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sarita typically lands around Jan 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Sarita?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sarita typically arrives around Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 9, so the watching starts about Nov 23 — about 343 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sarita?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sarita sees about 343 frost-free days — roughly Jan 14 through Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 4 to Dec 9, about 308 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sarita?
The federal record around Sarita shows 54 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Sarita?
From about Nov 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sarita's scale — its 9b band and its 343-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sarita'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 Sarita’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Sarita's own scale — the 731 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sarita's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sarita, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sarita's boundary and the 731 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Sarita's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sarita has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kenedy County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sarita's 731 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kenedy 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 Kenedy 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 Kenedy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sarita's 731 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sarita you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 731 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Sarita-wide figureread your own land →
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