Study Butte, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Study Butte, 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 Study Butte 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 Study Butte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Study Butte — the short answer
Study Butte, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Brewster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Brewster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Brewster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Brewster County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Study Butte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Study Butte's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Study Butte
Each reading below is measured for Study Butte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsStudy Butte runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Brewster County, the closest normal to Study Butte) — 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
MeasuredStudy Butte 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 Study Butte is in
Study Butte sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Study Butte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brewster County.
What Grows in Study Butte
Every plant below cleared Study Butte's own zone 9a and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Study Butte?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Study Butte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Study Butte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STUDY BUTTE MINING COMPANYSuperfund · 1.3 mi
- Study Butte MineMining · 1.4 mi
- Two-Forty-Eight MineMining · 1.7 mi
- Unnamed ProspectsMining · 2.1 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 3.0 mi
- Brown ProspectsMining · 3.7 mi
- CHISOS MINING COMPANYSuperfund · 4.8 mi
- Chisos MineMining · 4.8 mi
- Rainbow MineMining · 5.1 mi
- Le Roi ProspectMining · 5.2 mi
- Coltrin's Camp OccurrenceMining · 6.2 mi
- Star MineMining · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Study Butte'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 Study Butte.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Study Butte
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Study Butte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Study Butte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Study Butte, Mining runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Study Butte. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Study Butte
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 Study Butte average
Your land is one point inside Study Butte
Everything above resolves to Study Butte as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brewster 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 Study Butte Average
Study Butte Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Study Butte
- ●One soil character for all of Study Butte
- ●Frost dates read at Study Butte's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Study Butte's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Study Butte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Study Butte, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Study Butte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Study Butte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Study Butte average
How we know this about Study Butte
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 Brewster 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 Study Butte
When does frost risk typically end in Study Butte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Study Butte typically lands around Feb 19, 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 Mar 12.
When is the first frost in Study Butte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Study Butte typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Study Butte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Study Butte sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 17, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Study Butte?
The federal record around Study Butte runs heavier than most — 31 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (27), the nearest Superfund record about 1.3 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 Study Butte?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Study Butte's scale — its 9a band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Study Butte'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 Study Butte’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Study Butte's own scale — the 3,046 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Study Butte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Study Butte, the closest Superfund record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Study Butte's boundary and the 3,046 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Study Butte's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Study Butte has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brewster County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Study Butte's 3,046 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brewster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brewster 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 Brewster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Study Butte's 3,046 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Study Butte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,046 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 1.3 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 Study Butte-wide figureread your own land →
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