Alabama spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-9b, with a growing season of about 266 frost-free days — a calendar that barely closes, trading frost worries for heat management and near-continuous harvests.
Behind the zone label sits the real climate engine: 50-65 inches of annual rainfall, a median of roughly 5,383 growing-degree days (base 50°F), and about 1,226 winter chill hours for tree fruit. The ground itself runs to red clay, sandy loam, and alluvial; drainage character, more than fertility, is usually what sorts the thrivers from the strugglers. Within Alabama's borders sit genuinely different growing regions — Appalachia, Piedmont, and Gulf Coast — separated by zone band and frost timing. Well-matched crops include pecan, muscadine grape, okra, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•Chill hours (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Alabama spans zones 7b-9b, but your yard sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Alabama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Distinct growing regions within Alabama — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Alabama: USDA zones 7b-9b, 225–297 frost-free days depending on the county, 67 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze. The shortest-season figure is Alabama's own county record — Marion County's measured 28°F normal, not a modeled floor.
Zone 7b-9b is Alabama's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alabama's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One answer for Alabama averages 67 counties whose growing seasons are 72 days apart — from 225 frost-free days in Marion County to 297 in Mobile County. That is the same state, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your county sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 67 counties runs 244–277 days, with a median of 266 days — a 72-day span end to end.
Measured across 67 counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze. A county with no record of its own is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the state. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
The middle half of Alabama runs 244–277 frost-free days, and 32 of its 67 counties sit outside that — 16 on the short side, 16 on the long. A statewide planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 244 frost-free days
16 counties
3 of 16 shown
The end of the state that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
244–277 frost-free days
35 counties
0 of 35 shown
The middle half of the state, and the part a single statewide date describes well.
Over 277 frost-free days
16 counties
3 of 16 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its own 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a yard within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
The soil types that dominate Alabama — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Slow. Red clay seals under pounding rain and sheds water across the surface, then holds tight to what soaks in.
What thrives
Okra, southern peas, sweet potatoes, and muscadines are traditional red-clay performers, and many fruit trees root deep into it once through the first year. Azaleas and blueberries appreciate its typical acidity.
Drainage
Fast. The sand fraction opens the soil up, so water moves through the root zone quickly and the surface rarely stays soggy. The trade is that nutrients ride out with the water.
What thrives
Root crops love it — carrots, potatoes, radishes, and onions size up cleanly in ground they can push through. Melons, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and most herbs appreciate the warmth and the drainage.
Drainage
Usually good: rivers sort their loads, and most alluvial soils have enough sand and silt to move water while holding plenty for roots. Low-lying pockets can run wet.
What thrives
Nearly everything — vegetables, orchards, vines, and berries all prosper on alluvium. Its depth lets roots go as far down as they care to.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Alabama's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Across Alabama, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Mar 2, with the middle half of counties between Feb 24 and Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 15 and Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
The plants Alabama put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Camellia japonica
Designated 1959. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Pinus palustris
Designated 1949. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Designated 2021. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Alabama — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Alabama’s zones 7b-9b, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Alabama’s USDA zones 7b-9b but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
Heavy clay soils in the Piedmont region
Open clay with compost over time — or start above it in a raised bed and let the ground catch up underneath.
High humidity promotes fungal diseases
Airflow is the free fungicide: space generously, water at the base in the morning, and pick resistant varieties from your extension's list.
Fire ants are a persistent garden pest
Season-long baiting beats mound-by-mound whack-a-mole — your extension office publishes the current program that works.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Alabama, the Alabama Cooperative Extension System is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Alabama — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Alabama — 27,834 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 327 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Alabama carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Severity Distribution
across Alabama
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alabama, two things run higher than the national average across Alabama — CAFO (1,551 sites) and PFAS (290 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Alabama as a whole — a state whose own counties record seasons 72 days apart, and hardiness across zones 7b-9b. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Alabama averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alabama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alabama average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Alabama spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-9b — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about 5°F to 30°F depending where in Alabama you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Across Alabama, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Mar 2, with the middle half of counties between Feb 24 and Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 15 and Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Across Alabama, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Feb 24 and Mar 16, with a county median near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 23.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Alabama's counties mostly run about 244 to 277 days, with a county median near 266 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Alabama's zones 7b-9b support a wide range — strong performers include Pecan, Muscadine Grape, Okra, Collard Greens, and Fig. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Alabama spans USDA zones 7b-9b (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Alabama runs heavier than most — 27,834 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15,921) — 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.
Start with three facts. Alabama spans USDA zones 7b-9b, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Feb 24 to Mar 16 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 27,834 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Alabama's scale — its 7b-9b band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alabama's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Alabama's own scale — the full zone 7b-9b span inside its borders, the 3 soil types that dominate its ground and 27,834 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Alabama.
Alabama shares its dominant growing region with these states — a useful comparison if you're weighing where a crop will behave the same way.
