Onycha, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Onycha, 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 Onycha 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 Onycha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Onycha — the short answer
Onycha, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 507 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Covington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Covington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Covington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 507 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 Covington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Onycha's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Onycha's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Onycha
Each reading below is measured for Onycha itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOnycha runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Covington County, the closest normal to Onycha) — 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
MeasuredOnycha 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 Onycha is in
Onycha sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Onycha's own centroid rather than borrowed from Covington County.
What Grows in Onycha
Every plant below cleared Onycha's own zone 8b and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Onycha?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (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. 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 Onycha
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Onycha. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ONYCHA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DANLEE FARMSCAFO · 1.1 mi
- BILLY WAYNE CRAVEYCAFO · 1.9 mi
- WHITE CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- JERRY'S SPURUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MCCARTY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MOLDED FIBER GLASS ALABAMA PLANT 2Toxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- OPP LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- TYBE FARMS, FINAL FOUR, TIDE PRIDECAFO · 2.9 mi
- HARPER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- HARPERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- OPP DISCOUNT TOBACCO & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Onycha'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 Onycha.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Onycha
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Onycha
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Onycha
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Onycha, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Onycha. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Onycha
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 Onycha average
Your land is one point inside Onycha
Everything above resolves to Onycha as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 507 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Covington 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 Onycha Average
Onycha Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Onycha
- ●One soil character for all of Onycha
- ●Frost dates read at Onycha's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Onycha's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Onycha
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Onycha, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Onycha averages can't show:
We read public map data around Onycha — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Onycha average
How we know this about Onycha
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 Covington 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 Onycha
When does frost risk typically end in Onycha?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Onycha typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Onycha?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Onycha 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 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Onycha?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Onycha sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 19, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Onycha?
The federal record around Onycha shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Onycha?
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 Onycha's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Onycha'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 Onycha’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Onycha's own scale — the 507 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Onycha's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Onycha, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Onycha's boundary and the 507 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Onycha's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Onycha has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Covington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Onycha's 507 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Covington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Covington 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 Covington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Onycha's 507 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Onycha you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 507 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Onycha-wide figureread your own land →
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