Sinton, 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 Sinton, 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 Sinton 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 Sinton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sinton — the short answer
Sinton, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 San Patricio County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Sinton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sinton's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sinton
Each reading below is measured for Sinton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSinton runs about 322 days between hard freezes (read from San Patricio County, the closest normal to Sinton) — 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
MeasuredSinton 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 Sinton is in
Sinton sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sinton's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Patricio County.
What Grows in Sinton
Every plant below cleared Sinton's own zone 9b and its 322-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sinton?
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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Sinton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sinton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 381 WELDER STATIONBrownfields · 200 ft
- ALEXS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- SEMS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GOOD N CRISP CHICKENUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SAN-PAT MUFFLER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SAN PATRICIO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ROAD & BRIDGE DEPT PCT 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WAL-MART STORE 439Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 21286Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CIRCLE K 2625Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TAMALE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sinton'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 Sinton.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Sinton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sinton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sinton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sinton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 124 sites within ~10 miles of Sinton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Sinton
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 Sinton average
Your land is one point inside Sinton
Everything above resolves to Sinton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Patricio 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 Sinton Average
Sinton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Sinton
- ●One soil character for all of Sinton
- ●Frost dates read at Sinton's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sinton's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sinton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sinton, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sinton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sinton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sinton average
How we know this about Sinton
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 San Patricio 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 Sinton
When does frost risk typically end in Sinton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sinton typically lands around Jan 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Sinton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sinton typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 322 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sinton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sinton sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Nov 28, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sinton?
The federal record around Sinton is a meaningful one — 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sinton?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sinton's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sinton'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 Sinton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sinton's own scale — the 3,272 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sinton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sinton, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sinton's boundary and the 3,272 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sinton's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sinton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Patricio County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sinton's 3,272 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Patricio County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Patricio 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 San Patricio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sinton's 3,272 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sinton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,272 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Sinton-wide figureread your own land →
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