Fort Rucker, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Rucker, 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 Fort Rucker 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 Fort Rucker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Rucker — the short answer
Fort Rucker, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Dale County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Fort Rucker's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Rucker's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Rucker
Each reading below is measured for Fort Rucker itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Rucker runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Dale County, the closest normal to Fort Rucker) — 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
MeasuredFort Rucker sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Fort Rucker is in
Fort Rucker sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Rucker's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dale County.
What Grows in Fort Rucker
Every plant below cleared Fort Rucker's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Rucker?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Fort Rucker
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Rucker. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORT NOVOSELToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- U.S. ARMY AVIATION CENTER OF EXCELLENCE AND FORT NOVOSELToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- U.S. ARMY AVIATION CENTER OF EXCELLENCE AND FORT NOVOSELBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- FIRESTONE COMPLETE AUTO CARE #328500Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- CANNON OIL CORP #13Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LITTLE ""C"" STORE #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DALEVILLE CITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SUN VALLEY #615Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DROWNS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- OZARK UTILITIES BOARDPFAS · 2.2 mi
- FORT RUCKER - AMERICAN WATERPFAS · 2.2 mi
- DALEVILLE C OUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Rucker'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 Fort Rucker.
Total Sites
286
within ~10 miles of Fort Rucker
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Rucker
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Rucker
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Rucker, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Rucker — CAFO (16 sites) and PFAS (5 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.
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 Fort Rucker
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 Fort Rucker average
Your land is one point inside Fort Rucker
Everything above resolves to Fort Rucker as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dale 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 Fort Rucker Average
Fort Rucker Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Fort Rucker
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Rucker
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Rucker's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Rucker's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Rucker
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Rucker, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Rucker averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Rucker — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Rucker average
How we know this about Fort Rucker
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 Dale 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 Fort Rucker
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Rucker?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Rucker typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Fort Rucker?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Rucker typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Rucker?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Rucker sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 19, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Rucker?
The federal record around Fort Rucker is a meaningful one — 286 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (186), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.8 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 Fort Rucker?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Rucker's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Rucker'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 Fort Rucker’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Rucker's own scale — the 6,953 acres it covers and 286 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Rucker's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 286 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Rucker, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Rucker's boundary and the 6,953 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Rucker's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Rucker has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dale County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Rucker's 6,953 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dale 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 Dale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Rucker's 6,953 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Rucker you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,953 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.8 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 Fort Rucker-wide figureread your own land →