Bullock County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Bullock County lies within the Black Belt — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bullock County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bullock County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Bullock County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bullock County — the short answer
Bullock County, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 399K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 399K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 8b is Bullock County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bullock County's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Bullock County
Across a year, Bullock County accumulates about 5,263 growing degree days above 50°F, about 21 fewer than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 32 of Alabama’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,155 hours below 45°F, 93 fewer than the Alabama middle of 1,248. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bullock County
Across Bullock County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Conecuh, Luverne, and Oktibbeha are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bullock County
The USDA soil survey maps 46% of Bullock County as moderately well drained — but another 53% drains differently: 30% well drained, 23% somewhat poorly drained.
Conecuh is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Luverne (20%) and Oktibbeha (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bullock County
Each reading below is measured for Bullock County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bullock County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bullock County runs about pH 4.6–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBullock County runs about 259 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBullock County 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 Bullock County is in
Bullock County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Bullock County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bullock County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 259-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bullock County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Bullock County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Bullock County
USGS estimates 7,707 lb of 2,4-d on Bullock County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (4,156 lb) and Atrazine (1,417 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bullock County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bullock County — 97 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Bullock County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bullock County
Closest first, across Bullock County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDSTATE LAND AND TIMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DIXIE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SPRINGER LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RICHARDSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- UNITED FOOD & FUEL #104Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GRP INC. DBA PRAIRIEVIEW LIBERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WATERS GROCERY STORE #3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BONNIE PLANT FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SVC BTRY 3RD BN 117TH FAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- W A SHAWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- UNION CAMP CORP TREE NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- WAYNE POULTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bullock County'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 Bullock County.
Total Sites
97
across Bullock County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Bullock County
Severity Distribution
across Bullock County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bullock County, two things run higher than the national average across Bullock County — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (30 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bullock County
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 Bullock County average
Your land is one point inside Bullock County
Everything above resolves to Bullock County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 399K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bullock County Average
Bullock County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bullock County
- ●One soil character for all of Bullock County
- ●Frost dates read at Bullock County's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bullock County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bullock County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bullock County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bullock County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bullock County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bullock County average
How we know this about Bullock County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bullock County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bullock County
When does frost risk typically end in Bullock County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bullock County typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Bullock County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bullock County sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 7, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bullock County?
The federal record around Bullock County shows 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Bullock County's scale — its 8b band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bullock County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Alabama's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bullock County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Bullock County's own scale — its own ~259-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 97 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bullock County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bullock County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bullock CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 97 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bullock County's boundary and the 398,601 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bullock County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Bullock County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bullock County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bullock County — the ~259 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bullock County's 398,601 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 97 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bullock Countyread your own land →