Randolph County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Randolph County lies within the Piedmont — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Randolph County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Randolph 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 Randolph County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Randolph County — the short answer
Randolph County, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 372K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 372K 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 Randolph County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Randolph County's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Randolph County
Across a year, Randolph County accumulates about 4,577 growing degree days above 50°F, about 707 fewer than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 10 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 1,552 hours below 45°F, 304 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 Randolph County
Across Randolph County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Madison, Tallapoosa, and Fruithurst are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Randolph County
The USDA soil survey maps 84% of Randolph County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 6% somewhat poorly drained, 3% poorly drained.
Madison is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Tallapoosa (19%) and Fruithurst (16%).
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 Randolph County
Each reading below is measured for Randolph 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 Randolph 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 Randolph County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, 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
MeasuredRandolph County runs about 242 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
MeasuredRandolph 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 Randolph County is in
Randolph County sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Randolph County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Randolph County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 242-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 Randolph County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What gets applied to farmland in Randolph County
USGS estimates 10,496 lb of Glyphosate on Randolph County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (9,872 lb) and Dicamba (3,214 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 Randolph County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Randolph County — 250 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Randolph County 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.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Randolph County
Closest first, across Randolph County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RANDOLPH COUNTY FARMER'S CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- POOLE'S TRADING POST - PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AFM #76 WEDOWEE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JELD-WEN FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- AMERICAN STEEPLES AND BAPTISTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- FRANCIS MURPHYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- T L MCCORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EARL'S GROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TRIPLE T FARM EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BAILEY FARMCAFO · 1.2 mi
- 3 POINTS AUTO & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- COUNTY COURTHOUSE JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Randolph 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 Randolph County.
Total Sites
250
across Randolph County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Randolph County
Severity Distribution
across Randolph County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Randolph County, two things run higher than the national average across Randolph County — CAFO (64 sites) and Mining (38 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Randolph 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 Randolph County average
Your land is one point inside Randolph County
Everything above resolves to Randolph County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 372K 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 Randolph County Average
Randolph County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Randolph County
- ●One soil character for all of Randolph County
- ●Frost dates read at Randolph County's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Randolph County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Randolph County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Randolph County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Randolph County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Randolph County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Randolph County average
How we know this about Randolph 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 Randolph County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Randolph County
When does frost risk typically end in Randolph County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Randolph County typically lands around Mar 19, 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 Apr 9.
How long is the growing season in Randolph County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Randolph County sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 2, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Randolph County?
The federal record around Randolph County runs heavier than most — 250 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (118), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — 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.
Everything above is measured at Randolph County's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Randolph 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 Randolph County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Randolph County's own scale — its own ~242-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 250 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Randolph County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Randolph County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Randolph CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 250 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Randolph County's boundary and the 371,552 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Randolph County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Randolph 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 Randolph County — the ~242 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 Randolph County's 371,552 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 250 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 Randolph Countyread your own land →