Sunray, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sunray, 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 Sunray 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 Sunray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunray — the short answer
Sunray, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Sunray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunray's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunray
Each reading below is measured for Sunray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunray runs about 215 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSunray sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Sunray is in
Sunray sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sunray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Moore County.
What Grows in Sunray
Every plant below cleared Sunray's own zone 7a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunray?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Sunray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOOT N TOTUM 118Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ALLSUPS 88Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8928Brownfields · 500 ft
- OC PLUNKUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- C W BEDWELL FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TOOT N TOTUM 117Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CLYDE BROOKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- L C BURKETT DRILLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SUNRAY OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SUNRAY CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- L T DRILLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TT-03-58-709Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunray'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 Sunray.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Sunray
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunray, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sunray — CAFO (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Sunray
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 Sunray average
Your land is one point inside Sunray
Everything above resolves to Sunray as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. 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 Sunray Average
Sunray Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sunray
- ●One soil character for all of Sunray
- ●Frost dates read at Sunray's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunray's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunray, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunray average
How we know this about Sunray
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 Sunray’s own record; 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 Sunray
When does frost risk typically end in Sunray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunray typically lands around Apr 2, 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 Apr 23.
When is the first frost in Sunray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunray typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunray sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 20, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunray?
The federal record around Sunray is a meaningful one — 39 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sunray?
From about Oct 4 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 Nov 3 (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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunray's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunray'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 Sunray’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunray's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,093 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunray's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 3 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunray, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunray's boundary and the 1,093 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunray's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunray's 1,093 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Moore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Moore 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 Moore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunray's 1,093 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,093 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sunray-wide figureread your own land →