Pickens County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Pickens County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pickens 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 Pickens County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pickens County — the short answer
Pickens County, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 564K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 564K 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 8a is Pickens County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pickens County's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Pickens County
Across a year, Pickens County accumulates about 5,284 growing degree days above 50°F, right at the Alabama middle — ahead of 33 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 1,341 hours below 45°F, 93 more 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 Pickens County
Across Pickens County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Smithdale, Luverne, and Savannah are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.1, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
20%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pickens County
The USDA soil survey maps 63% of Pickens County as well drained — but another 36% drains differently: 19% somewhat poorly drained, 11% moderately well drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 27% of mapped acres, then Luverne (19%) and Savannah (8%).
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 Pickens County
Each reading below is measured for Pickens 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 Pickens County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Pickens County runs about pH 4.6–5.1, 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
MeasuredPickens County runs about 264 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
MeasuredPickens County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Pickens County is in
Pickens 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 Pickens County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pickens County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 264-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 Pickens County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Pickens County
- Japanese beetle7 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Pickens County
USGS estimates 43,379 lb of Glyphosate on Pickens County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (10,806 lb) and 2,4-d (6,683 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 Pickens County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pickens County — 218 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Pickens 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 Pickens County
Closest first, across Pickens County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST ALABAMA AG COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PICKENS COUNTY MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PICKENS COUNTY LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SCHOOL BUS STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- STATE OF ALABAMA FORESTRY COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Well M 17 331622088071001 Pickens Cnty ALNitrate · 2.1 mi
- Well M 15 331556088054601 Pickens County AlNitrate · 2.1 mi
- PICKENS COUNTY BARN WORK CENTER 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ARCHIE'S AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- B MART 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CARROLLTON SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CARROLLTON BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pickens 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 Pickens County.
Total Sites
218
across Pickens County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Pickens County
Severity Distribution
across Pickens County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pickens County, two things run higher than the national average across Pickens County — CAFO (18 sites) and Nitrate (62 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 Pickens 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 Pickens County average
Your land is one point inside Pickens County
Everything above resolves to Pickens County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 564K 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 Pickens County Average
Pickens County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pickens County
- ●One soil character for all of Pickens County
- ●Frost dates read at Pickens County's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pickens County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pickens County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pickens County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pickens County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pickens County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pickens County average
How we know this about Pickens 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 Pickens County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pickens County
When does frost risk typically end in Pickens County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pickens County typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Pickens County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pickens County sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 7, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pickens County?
The federal record around Pickens County is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Pickens County's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pickens 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 Pickens County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Pickens County's own scale — its own ~264-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 218 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pickens County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pickens County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pickens CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 218 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pickens County's boundary and the 564,087 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pickens County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Pickens County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pickens 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 Pickens County — the ~264 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 Pickens County's 564,087 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 218 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 Pickens Countyread your own land →