What USDA hardiness zone is Van Zandt County, Texas?

Every ZIP code in Van Zandt County, Texas is USDA hardiness zone 8b, from the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

When is the last spring frost in Van Zandt County, Texas?

The median last spring freeze runs March 8 – March 20 across the 5 NOAA weather stations serving Van Zandt County, Texas, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Texas

Planting zones in Van Zandt County, Texas

Every ZIP code in this county is USDA zone 8b — so unlike most of the places people look up, there is one right answer here and it holds wherever you are in the county.

USDA zone 8b The same in all 8 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 8 8 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 5 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 843 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Van Zandt County, Texas as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

The growing season in Van Zandt County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives November 11 – November 22 across the 5 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around January 11 – January 23 — counted back from a last spring freeze of March 8 – March 20 here.

Every spring date for your ZIP →

These are ranges across the whole county. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.

All 5 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 5 NOAA stations serving this county counts March 20 – November 11 as growing season (236 days). Widening to any single station gives March 8 – November 22 (259 days).

That is a 23-day difference inside one county — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze March 8 – March 20

First fall freeze November 11 – November 22

Across the 5 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 235–258 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 90.6–93.2 °F in June–August. That is past the point where tomato and pepper pollen fails and cool-season greens bolt, so in this county heat decides as much as frost does. Summer rain over the same months runs 8.8–9.9" across those 4 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 69% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 93 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Van Zandt County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
75103	8b	Wills Pt, TX	24.0 km
75117	8b	Wills Pt, TX	14.7 km
75127	8b	Emory, TX	19.1 km
75140	8b	Mineola, TX	19.1 km
75147	8b	Kaufman 3 SE, TX	24.5 km
75169	8b	Wills Pt, TX	1.9 km
75754	8b	Tyler Pounds FLD, TX	24.1 km
75790	8b	Mineola, TX	19.3 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Van Zandt County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 5 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	January 11 – January 23	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	January 11 – January 23	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	January 25 – February 6	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	February 1 – February 13	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	February 1 – February 13	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	February 1 – February 13	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	February 8 – February 20	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	February 15 – February 27	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	February 22 – March 6	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	February 22 – March 6	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	February 22 – March 6	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	February 22 – March 6	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	February 22 – March 6	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	February 22 – March 6	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	February 22 – March 6	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	March 1 – March 13	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	March 15 – March 27	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	March 22 – April 3	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	March 22 – April 3	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	March 22 – April 3	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	March 22 – April 3	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	March 22 – April 3	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	March 22 – April 3	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What lives through a zone 8b winter

Of 74 perennial edibles, 54 come through a zone 8b winter — and 11 fail here for being too warm rather than too cold, needing more winter chill than this county gets or more heat than they tolerate. Among the ones that work: Apple, Aronia, Elderberry, Asparagus, Horseradish, Sunchoke, Walking Onion, Chives.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to April 10 to be careful. Median March 8 – March 20 across 5 stations; February 16 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to October 25 to be careful. Median November 11 – November 22 across 5 stations; December 9 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 5 stations behind these numbers

All 5 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 57 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Emory, TX	USC00412902	March 20	November 12	238 days
Kaufman 3 SE, TX	USC00414705	March 16	November 14	243 days
Mineola, TX	USC00415954	March 20	November 11	235 days
Tyler Pounds FLD, TX	USW00013972	March 8	November 22	258 days
Wills Pt, TX	USC00419800	March 11	November 21	252 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Van Zandt County sits in Texas. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of Texas

Counties with the same zones — 8b

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Shade clothSummer highs here average 93 °F, at or above the 90 °F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.