Toco, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Toco, 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 Toco 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 Toco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Toco — the short answer
Toco, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 109 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~271
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 109 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 Lamar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Toco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Toco's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Toco
Each reading below is measured for Toco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsToco runs about 271 days between hard freezes (read from Lamar County, the closest normal to Toco) — 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
MeasuredToco sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Toco is in
Toco sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Toco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamar County.
What Grows in Toco
Every plant below cleared Toco's own zone 8a and its 271-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Toco?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Toco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Toco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOOD FAST 1096Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- WEST END SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- P & P GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- HOPEWELL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- CAST PRODUCTS DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- LAMAR POWER (PARIS)Brownfields · 4.0 mi
- PARIS TRUCK SHOPBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- TURNER INDUSTRIES GROUP PARIS PLANTBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- BABCOCK & WILCOXUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- BABCOCK & WILCOX COToxics Release Inventory · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Toco'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 Toco.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Toco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Toco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Toco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Toco, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Toco — Underground Storage Tanks (187 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Toco
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 Toco average
Your land is one point inside Toco
Everything above resolves to Toco as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 109 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lamar 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 Toco Average
Toco Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Toco
- ●One soil character for all of Toco
- ●Frost dates read at Toco's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Toco's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Toco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Toco, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Toco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Toco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Toco average
How we know this about Toco
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 Lamar 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 Toco
When does frost risk typically end in Toco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Toco typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Toco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Toco typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 271 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Toco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Toco sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 11, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Toco?
The federal record around Toco is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (187), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 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 Toco?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Toco's scale — its 8a band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Toco'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 Toco’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Toco's own scale — the 109 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Toco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Toco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Toco's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Toco's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Toco has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lamar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Toco's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamar 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 Lamar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Toco's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Toco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 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 Toco-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasToco sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.