Daviston, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Even in Daviston, 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 Daviston 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 Daviston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Daviston — the short answer
Daviston, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Daviston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Daviston's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Daviston
Each reading below is measured for Daviston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDaviston runs about 250 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
MeasuredDaviston 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 Daviston is in
Daviston sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Daviston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tallapoosa County.
What Grows in Daviston
Every plant below cleared Daviston's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Daviston?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Daviston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Daviston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Well H 2 325950085385001 Tallapoosa County AlNitrate · 4.1 mi
- JODY MELTONCAFO · 4.3 mi
- Number Two ProspectMining · 4.8 mi
- RADIO MAN DISCOUNT CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- MCDANIEL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- WADLEY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- STEPHENS' STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- WADLEY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- CALDWELL BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- CLEVE ATKENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- ALBRIGHTS AC-124Underground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- W G GAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Daviston'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 Daviston.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Daviston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Daviston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Daviston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Daviston, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Daviston. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Daviston
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 Daviston average
Your land is one point inside Daviston
Everything above resolves to Daviston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 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 Daviston Average
Daviston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Daviston
- ●One soil character for all of Daviston
- ●Frost dates read at Daviston's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Daviston's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Daviston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Daviston, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Daviston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Daviston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Daviston average
How we know this about Daviston
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 Daviston’s own record; 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 Daviston
When does frost risk typically end in Daviston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Daviston typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Daviston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Daviston typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Daviston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Daviston sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 4, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Daviston?
The federal record around Daviston is a meaningful one — 44 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (22), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.1 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 Daviston?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Daviston's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Daviston'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 Daviston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Daviston's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,846 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Daviston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Daviston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 18 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Daviston, the closest Nitrate record about 4.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Daviston's boundary and the 5,846 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Daviston's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Daviston's 5,846 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tallapoosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tallapoosa 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 Tallapoosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Daviston's 5,846 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Daviston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,846 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 4.1 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 Daviston-wide figureread your own land →
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