Geneva County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Geneva County lies within the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Geneva County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Geneva 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 Geneva County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Geneva County — the short answer
Geneva County, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 368K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 368K 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 Geneva County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Geneva County's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Geneva County
Across a year, Geneva County accumulates about 5,872 growing degree days above 50°F, about 588 more than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 59 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 843 hours below 45°F, 405 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 Geneva County
Across Geneva County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Dothan, Orangeburg, and Ardilla are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.1–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
59%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Geneva County
The USDA soil survey maps 62% of Geneva County as well drained — but another 38% drains differently: 14% poorly drained, 10% somewhat excessively drained.
Dothan is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Orangeburg (15%) and Ardilla (7%).
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 Geneva County
Each reading below is measured for Geneva 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 Geneva County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Geneva County runs about pH 5.1–5.3, 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
MeasuredGeneva County runs about 274 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
MeasuredGeneva 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 Geneva County is in
Geneva 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 Geneva County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Geneva County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 274-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 Geneva County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Geneva County
USGS estimates 71,230 lb of Glyphosate on Geneva County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (25,692 lb) and Dicamba (20,729 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 Geneva County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Geneva County — 156 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Geneva County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Geneva County
Closest first, across Geneva County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIMS HILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- TURNER FARMSCAFO · 1.7 mi
- JIMMY G. SHIVER POULTRY FARMCAFO · 1.8 mi
- HOT WINGS FARMSCAFO · 1.9 mi
- BRANT VAUGHAN FARMSCAFO · 1.9 mi
- ERIC VAUGHAN FARMSCAFO · 2.1 mi
- WILKS & WILKSCAFO · 2.1 mi
- GREEN CREEK FARMCAFO · 2.7 mi
- RANDY SHIELDS FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SOUTHERN W FARMS- NEWCAFO · 3.2 mi
- COTTONS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- RUSKIN COMPANY / RELIABLE PRODUCTS DIVISIONBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Geneva 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 Geneva County.
Total Sites
156
across Geneva County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Geneva County
Severity Distribution
across Geneva County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Geneva County, two things run higher than the national average across Geneva County — CAFO (43 sites) and PFAS (7 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.
Check your specific parcel in Geneva 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 Geneva County average
Your land is one point inside Geneva County
Everything above resolves to Geneva County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 368K 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 Geneva County Average
Geneva County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Geneva County
- ●One soil character for all of Geneva County
- ●Frost dates read at Geneva County's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Geneva County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Geneva County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Geneva County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Geneva County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Geneva County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Geneva County average
How we know this about Geneva 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 Geneva County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Geneva County
When does frost risk typically end in Geneva County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Geneva County typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
How long is the growing season in Geneva County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Geneva County sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 12, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Geneva County?
The federal record around Geneva County is a meaningful one — 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Geneva County's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Geneva 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 Geneva County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Geneva County's own scale — its own ~274-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 156 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Geneva County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Geneva County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~274-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Geneva CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 156 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
- Geneva County's boundary and the 367,670 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Geneva County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Geneva 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 Geneva County — the ~274 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 Geneva County's 367,670 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 156 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 Geneva Countyread your own land →