Chunchula, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chunchula, 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 Chunchula 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 Chunchula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chunchula — the short answer
Chunchula, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Mobile County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Chunchula's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chunchula's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chunchula
Each reading below is measured for Chunchula itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChunchula runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Mobile County, the closest normal to Chunchula) — 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
MeasuredChunchula sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Chunchula is in
Chunchula sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chunchula's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mobile County.
What Grows in Chunchula
Every plant below cleared Chunchula's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chunchula?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Chunchula
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chunchula. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAWKINS BROTHERS JUNKYARDBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CITY OF FLORALAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DAVIS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TOMMY'S COUNTRY PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NIBROCK, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
- NIBROCK, INC.Brownfields · 3.7 mi
- CHEAPOS QWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- THE UTILITIES BOARD OF THE TOWN OF CITRONELLE DBA SOUTH ALABAMA UTILITIESBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- TONI JO'S GOOD FOOD & MORE, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- Well L-8 VIRGINIA CHEMICAL CO. Mobile Cnty ALNitrate · 4.3 mi
- Well Q-1 R.E. SNOW Mobile Cnty ALNitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chunchula'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 Chunchula.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Chunchula
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chunchula
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chunchula
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chunchula, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Chunchula. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Chunchula
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 Chunchula average
Your land is one point inside Chunchula
Everything above resolves to Chunchula as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mobile County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Chunchula Average
Chunchula Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Chunchula
- ●One soil character for all of Chunchula
- ●Frost dates read at Chunchula's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chunchula's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chunchula
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chunchula, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chunchula averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chunchula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chunchula average
How we know this about Chunchula
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 Mobile 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 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 Chunchula
When does frost risk typically end in Chunchula?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chunchula typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Chunchula?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chunchula typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chunchula?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chunchula sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 19, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chunchula?
The federal record around Chunchula is a meaningful one — 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Chunchula?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chunchula's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chunchula'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 Chunchula’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Chunchula's own scale — the 1,155 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chunchula's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chunchula, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chunchula's boundary and the 1,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chunchula's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chunchula has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mobile County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chunchula's 1,155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mobile County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mobile County
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Mobile County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chunchula's 1,155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chunchula you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Chunchula-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Growing region