Millport, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Millport, 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 Millport 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 Millport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Millport — the short answer
Millport, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Lamar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Millport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Millport's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Millport
Each reading below is measured for Millport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMillport runs about 235 days between hard freezes (read from Lamar County, the closest normal to Millport) — 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
MeasuredMillport 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 Millport is in
Millport sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Millport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamar County.
What Grows in Millport
Every plant below cleared Millport's own zone 8a and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Millport?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Millport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Millport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Well R-7 TOWN OF MILLPORT Lamar County AlNitrate · 950 ft
- MARVIN RIDGEWAY (3-WAY GROCERY)Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SNIDER'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LAMAR COUNTY TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MILLPORT FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PHOEBE'S DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BASWELL MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- L&M CABINET SHOPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NAWQA FLH-15-1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- B & J TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOUTH LAMAR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Millport'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 Millport.
Total Sites
45
within ~10 miles of Millport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Millport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Millport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Millport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Millport — Nitrate (14 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Millport
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 Millport average
Your land is one point inside Millport
Everything above resolves to Millport as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lamar 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 Millport Average
Millport Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Millport
- ●One soil character for all of Millport
- ●Frost dates read at Millport's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Millport's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Millport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Millport, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Millport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Millport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Millport average
How we know this about Millport
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 Lamar 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 Millport
When does frost risk typically end in Millport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Millport typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Millport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Millport 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 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Millport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Millport sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 29, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Millport?
The federal record around Millport is a meaningful one — 45 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Nitrate 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 Millport?
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 Millport's scale — its 8a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Millport'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 Millport’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Millport's own scale — the 3,512 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Millport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Millport, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Millport's boundary and the 3,512 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Millport's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Millport has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lamar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Millport's 3,512 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamar 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 Lamar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Millport's 3,512 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Millport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,512 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Millport-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaMillport sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides