Sour Lake, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sour Lake, 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 Sour Lake 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 Sour Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sour Lake — the short answer
Sour Lake, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 305 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Hardin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Hardin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~305
- Hardin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Hardin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Sour Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sour Lake's 305-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sour Lake
Each reading below is measured for Sour Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSour Lake runs about 305 days between hard freezes (read from Hardin County, the closest normal to Sour Lake) — 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
MeasuredSour Lake 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 Sour Lake is in
Sour Lake sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sour Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardin County.
What Grows in Sour Lake
Every plant below cleared Sour Lake's own zone 9a and its 305-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sour Lake?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (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. 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 Sour Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sour Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARDIN-JEFFERSON ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WAGCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HARDIN COUNTY PCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- M&M QUICKSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CALVIN FORDBrownfields · 900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7651Brownfields · 1300 ft
- J & R MEAT MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- M & D ELECTRIC INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- M & D TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CITGO PIPELINE OILSuperfund · 2300 ft
- YARBROUGH AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sour Lake'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 Sour Lake.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Sour Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sour Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sour Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sour Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Sour Lake. 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 Sour Lake
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 Sour Lake average
Your land is one point inside Sour Lake
Everything above resolves to Sour Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hardin 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 Sour Lake Average
Sour Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Sour Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Sour Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Sour Lake's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sour Lake's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sour Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sour Lake, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sour Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sour Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sour Lake average
How we know this about Sour Lake
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 Hardin 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 Sour Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Sour Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sour Lake typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Sour Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sour Lake 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 305 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sour Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sour Lake sees about 305 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 21, about 270 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sour Lake?
The federal record around Sour Lake is a meaningful one — 90 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Sour Lake?
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 Sour Lake's scale — its 9a band and its 305-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sour Lake'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 Sour Lake’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sour Lake's own scale — the 1,473 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sour Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sour Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sour Lake's boundary and the 1,473 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~305-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sour Lake's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sour Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hardin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sour Lake's 1,473 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardin 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 Hardin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sour Lake's 1,473 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sour Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,473 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sour Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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