Kinston, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kinston, 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 Kinston 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 Kinston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kinston — the short answer
Kinston, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Coffee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Coffee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- Coffee 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 Coffee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Kinston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kinston's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kinston
Each reading below is measured for Kinston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKinston runs about 286 days between hard freezes (read from Coffee County, the closest normal to Kinston) — 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
MeasuredKinston 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 Kinston is in
Kinston sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kinston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coffee County.
What Grows in Kinston
Every plant below cleared Kinston's own zone 8b and its 286-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kinston?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Kinston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kinston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KINSTON HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WOOD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KINSTON AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- J & H SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KINSTON SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- INLAND #610Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KINGSTON MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SMITH SH 3321CAFO · 0.6 mi
- PATTERSON FARMCAFO · 1.1 mi
- LANE AND LAKE FARMSCAFO · 1.4 mi
- RODNEY CLARK FARMCAFO · 1.4 mi
- DAKOTA CHICKS, LLC, DBA DIXIE FARMCAFO · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kinston'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 Kinston.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Kinston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kinston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kinston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kinston, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Kinston. 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 Kinston
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 Kinston average
Your land is one point inside Kinston
Everything above resolves to Kinston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Coffee 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 Kinston Average
Kinston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kinston
- ●One soil character for all of Kinston
- ●Frost dates read at Kinston's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kinston's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kinston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kinston, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kinston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kinston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kinston average
How we know this about Kinston
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 Coffee 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 Kinston
When does frost risk typically end in Kinston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kinston typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Kinston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kinston typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 286 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kinston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kinston sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 17, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kinston?
The federal record around Kinston shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Kinston?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kinston's scale — its 8b band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kinston'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 Kinston’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kinston's own scale — the 3,131 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kinston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kinston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kinston's boundary and the 3,131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kinston's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kinston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Coffee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kinston's 3,131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coffee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coffee 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 Coffee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kinston's 3,131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kinston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,131 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Kinston-wide figureread your own land →
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