Spruce Pine, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spruce Pine, 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 Spruce Pine 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 Spruce Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spruce Pine — the short answer
Spruce Pine, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 594 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- 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
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 594 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 Spruce Pine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spruce Pine's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spruce Pine
Each reading below is measured for Spruce Pine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpruce Pine runs about 242 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
MeasuredSpruce Pine 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 Spruce Pine is in
Spruce Pine sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spruce Pine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Spruce Pine
Every plant below cleared Spruce Pine's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spruce Pine?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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 Spruce Pine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spruce Pine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M/J FEED MILL AL, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- PHIL CAMPBELL ARCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RACEWAY #838Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TOWN HILL TRUCKSTOP & STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MOUNTAIN TOP POULTRYCAFO · 1.7 mi
- KINGS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MOUNTAIN TOP WEBB SITE #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FRANKS OIL BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PHIL CAMPBELL WATER WORKSPFAS · 2.5 mi
- JOES TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Well G-13 Town Of Red Bay AlNitrate · 2.7 mi
- Well N-31 TOWN OF PHIL CAMPBELL Franklin Cnty AlNitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spruce Pine'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 Spruce Pine.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Spruce Pine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spruce Pine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spruce Pine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spruce Pine, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Spruce Pine — CAFO (34 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Spruce Pine
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 Spruce Pine average
Your land is one point inside Spruce Pine
Everything above resolves to Spruce Pine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 594 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 Spruce Pine Average
Spruce Pine Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Spruce Pine
- ●One soil character for all of Spruce Pine
- ●Frost dates read at Spruce Pine's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spruce Pine's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spruce Pine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spruce Pine, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spruce Pine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spruce Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spruce Pine average
How we know this about Spruce Pine
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 Spruce Pine’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 Spruce Pine
When does frost risk typically end in Spruce Pine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spruce Pine typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Spruce Pine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spruce Pine 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 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spruce Pine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spruce Pine sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Oct 29, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spruce Pine?
The federal record around Spruce Pine is a meaningful one — 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Spruce Pine?
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 Spruce Pine's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spruce Pine'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 Spruce Pine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spruce Pine's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 594 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spruce Pine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spruce Pine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 12 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spruce Pine, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spruce Pine's boundary and the 594 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spruce Pine's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spruce Pine's 594 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spruce Pine's 594 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spruce Pine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 594 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Spruce Pine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaSpruce Pine sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides