Tornillo, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tornillo, 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 Tornillo 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 Tornillo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tornillo — the short answer
Tornillo, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8a is Tornillo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tornillo's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tornillo
Each reading below is measured for Tornillo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTornillo runs about 263 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredTornillo 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 Tornillo is in
Tornillo sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tornillo's own centroid rather than borrowed from El Paso County.
What Grows in Tornillo
Every plant below cleared Tornillo's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tornillo?
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 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 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Tornillo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tornillo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4823Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- JL-49-40-412Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- EL PASO COUNTY TORNILLO WIDPFAS · 2.4 mi
- EL PASO COUNTY WCID 4 FABENSPFAS · 4.8 mi
- EL PASO VALLEY COTTON ASSNUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- EL PASO CTY WATER IMP DIST 1Underground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- MORRISONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- EDDIES GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- BUCK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 53345Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 53306Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tornillo'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 Tornillo.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Tornillo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tornillo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tornillo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tornillo, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Tornillo. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Tornillo
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 Tornillo average
Your land is one point inside Tornillo
Everything above resolves to Tornillo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Tornillo Average
Tornillo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tornillo
- ●One soil character for all of Tornillo
- ●Frost dates read at Tornillo's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tornillo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tornillo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tornillo, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tornillo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tornillo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tornillo average
How we know this about Tornillo
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 Tornillo’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 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 Tornillo
When does frost risk typically end in Tornillo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tornillo 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 Tornillo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tornillo typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tornillo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tornillo sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 3, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tornillo?
The federal record around Tornillo shows 28 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tornillo?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tornillo's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tornillo'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 Tornillo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tornillo's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,218 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tornillo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tornillo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 27 and Nov 17 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tornillo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tornillo's boundary and the 2,218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tornillo's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tornillo's 2,218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso 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 El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tornillo's 2,218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tornillo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,218 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Tornillo-wide figureread your own land →