Cuba, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cuba, 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 Cuba 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 Cuba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cuba — the short answer
Cuba, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Sumter County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cuba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cuba's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cuba
Each reading below is measured for Cuba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCuba runs about 266 days between hard freezes (read from Sumter County, the closest normal to Cuba) — 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
MeasuredCuba 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 Cuba is in
Cuba sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cuba's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumter County.
What Grows in Cuba
Every plant below cleared Cuba's own zone 8b and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cuba?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (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.
What's on the federal record near Cuba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cuba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUBA UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BEN WALKER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CUBA MERCANTILE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BUILDERS TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CUBA QUICK STOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Well FF-2 CITY OF CUBA Sumter County AlNitrate · 0.8 mi
- MCELROY TRUCK LINES INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Well FF-4 W.A. GANGUET Sumter Cnty ALNitrate · 1.1 mi
- M&S GAS & GO TIRE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CUBA ONE STOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- EXIT ONE TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MCELROY TRUCK LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cuba'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 Cuba.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Cuba
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cuba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cuba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cuba, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Cuba. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cuba
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 Cuba average
Your land is one point inside Cuba
Everything above resolves to Cuba as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sumter 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 Cuba Average
Cuba Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cuba
- ●One soil character for all of Cuba
- ●Frost dates read at Cuba's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cuba's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cuba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cuba, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cuba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cuba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cuba average
How we know this about Cuba
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 Sumter 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 Cuba
When does frost risk typically end in Cuba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cuba typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Cuba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cuba typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cuba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cuba sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 7, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cuba?
The federal record around Cuba is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cuba?
From about Oct 22 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 Nov 21 (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 Nov 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cuba's scale — its 8b band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cuba'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 Cuba’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cuba's own scale — the 2,600 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cuba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cuba, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cuba's boundary and the 2,600 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cuba's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cuba has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sumter County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cuba's 2,600 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumter 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 Sumter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cuba's 2,600 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cuba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,600 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Cuba-wide figureread your own land →
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