Fruithurst, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Even in Fruithurst, 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 Fruithurst 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 Fruithurst — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fruithurst — the short answer
Fruithurst, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 640 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 640 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 Fruithurst's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fruithurst's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fruithurst
Each reading below is measured for Fruithurst itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFruithurst runs about 232 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
MeasuredFruithurst 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 Fruithurst is in
Fruithurst sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fruithurst's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cleburne County.
What Grows in Fruithurst
Every plant below cleared Fruithurst's own zone 8a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fruithurst?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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's on the federal record near Fruithurst
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fruithurst. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEIGHT'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MORROWS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FRUITHURST COMMUNITYSuperfund · 2000 ft
- PREFERRED COMPOUNDING CORPSuperfund · 2000 ft
- PREFERRED COMPOUNDING CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- FRUITHURST WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Well K 1 334440085231001 Cleburne County AlNitrate · 2.4 mi
- HUTCHESON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- ROSEWOOD CORNER LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- THE BENEFIELD FARMCAFO · 4.4 mi
- Well K 4 334030085235601 Cleburne County AlNitrate · 4.4 mi
- SAMCO EXPRESS #37Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fruithurst'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 Fruithurst.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Fruithurst
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fruithurst
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fruithurst
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fruithurst, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fruithurst — CAFO (14 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Fruithurst
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 Fruithurst average
Your land is one point inside Fruithurst
Everything above resolves to Fruithurst as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 640 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 Fruithurst Average
Fruithurst Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fruithurst
- ●One soil character for all of Fruithurst
- ●Frost dates read at Fruithurst's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fruithurst's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fruithurst
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fruithurst, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fruithurst averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fruithurst — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fruithurst average
How we know this about Fruithurst
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 Fruithurst’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 Fruithurst
When does frost risk typically end in Fruithurst?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fruithurst typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Fruithurst?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fruithurst typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fruithurst?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fruithurst sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 29, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fruithurst?
The federal record around Fruithurst is a meaningful one — 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fruithurst?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fruithurst's scale — its 8a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fruithurst'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 Fruithurst’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fruithurst's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 640 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fruithurst's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fruithurst's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 12 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fruithurst, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fruithurst's boundary and the 640 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fruithurst's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fruithurst's 640 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cleburne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cleburne 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 Cleburne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fruithurst's 640 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fruithurst you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 640 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fruithurst-wide figureread your own land →
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