Prichard, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prichard, 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 Prichard 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 Prichard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prichard — the short answer
Prichard, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Mobile County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Prichard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prichard's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prichard
Each reading below is measured for Prichard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPrichard runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Mobile County, the closest normal to Prichard) — 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
MeasuredPrichard 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 Prichard is in
Prichard sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Prichard's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mobile County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Prichard
Every plant below cleared Prichard's own zone 9a and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prichard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Prichard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prichard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- APCO NORTH MOBILE CREW HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ALABAMA PLATING CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- JR FOOD STORE #167Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- INDUSTRIAL VALVE SALES AND SERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- MERRI MART #14Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BISKET AUTOBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS #12333Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- TRACKSIDE 5054Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WABB (AM) TRANSMITTER SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AUSTIN'S AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TCREIC #762Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- A1 GULF COASTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prichard'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 Prichard.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prichard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prichard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Prichard
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 Prichard average
Your land is one point inside Prichard
Everything above resolves to Prichard as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mobile County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Prichard Average
Prichard Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Prichard
- ●One soil character for all of Prichard
- ●Frost dates read at Prichard's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prichard's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prichard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prichard, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prichard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prichard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prichard average
How we know this about Prichard
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mobile 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Prichard
When does frost risk typically end in Prichard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prichard typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Prichard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prichard 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 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prichard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prichard sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 19, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prichard?
The federal record around Prichard is a meaningful one — 1,442 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (751), 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 Prichard?
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 Prichard's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prichard'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 Prichard’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Prichard's own scale — the 16,264 acres it covers and 1,442 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prichard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,442 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prichard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prichard's boundary and the 16,264 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Prichard sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Prichard has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mobile County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prichard's 16,264 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mobile County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mobile 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 Mobile County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prichard's 16,264 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prichard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,264 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 Prichard-wide figureread your own land →
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