Schertz, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Schertz, 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 Schertz 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 Schertz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Schertz — the short answer
Schertz, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 302 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~302
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 21K 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 Guadalupe County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Schertz's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Schertz's 302-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Schertz
Each reading below is measured for Schertz itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSchertz runs about 302 days between hard freezes (read from Guadalupe County, the closest normal to Schertz) — 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
MeasuredSchertz 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 Schertz is in
Schertz sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Schertz's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guadalupe County.
What Grows in Schertz
Every plant below cleared Schertz's own zone 9a and its 302-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Schertz?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Schertz
Survey cells within 31 miles of Schertz checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 651 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Schertz
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Schertz. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIC N PAC 9Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MURPHY EXPRESS 8752Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 35802Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SIGNATURE PLATINGBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SHOP RITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FARMERS TRUCK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LIBERTY OILFIELD SERVICES CIBOLO FRACBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6429Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOZANO BROTHERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- NORTH AMERICAN BULLET PROOFToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- SCHERTZ CIBOLO UNIVERSAL CTY ISD TRANSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SCHERTZ CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Schertz'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 Schertz.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Schertz
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Schertz
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Schertz, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Schertz — PFAS (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (46 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Schertz
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 Schertz average
Your land is one point inside Schertz
Everything above resolves to Schertz as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 21K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Guadalupe 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 Schertz Average
Schertz Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Schertz
- ●One soil character for all of Schertz
- ●Frost dates read at Schertz's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Schertz's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Schertz
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Schertz, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Schertz averages can't show:
We read public map data around Schertz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schertz average
How we know this about Schertz
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 Guadalupe 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 Schertz
When does frost risk typically end in Schertz?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Schertz typically lands around Feb 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Schertz?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Schertz typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 302 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Schertz?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Schertz sees about 302 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 21, about 267 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Schertz?
The federal record around Schertz runs heavier than most — 686 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (359), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Schertz?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Schertz's scale — its 9a band and its 302-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Schertz'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 Schertz’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Schertz's own scale — the 21,204 acres it covers and 686 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Schertz's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 686 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Schertz, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Schertz's boundary and the 21,204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~302-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Schertz's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Schertz checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Schertz has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Guadalupe County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Schertz's 21,204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guadalupe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Schertz's 21,204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Schertz you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,204 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Schertz-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasSchertz sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides