Wetumpka, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wetumpka, 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 Wetumpka 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 Wetumpka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wetumpka — the short answer
Wetumpka, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Elmore County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Elmore County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~271
- Elmore County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Elmore County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Wetumpka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wetumpka's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wetumpka
Each reading below is measured for Wetumpka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWetumpka runs about 271 days between hard freezes (read from Elmore County, the closest normal to Wetumpka) — 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
MeasuredWetumpka 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 Wetumpka is in
Wetumpka sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wetumpka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elmore County.
What Grows in Wetumpka
Every plant below cleared Wetumpka's own zone 8b and its 271-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wetumpka?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Wetumpka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wetumpka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WETUMPKA CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WETUMPKA HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SCHOOL BUS STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- EAST & SON SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MANNS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BASS OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ELMORE COUNTY FARMERS EXCHANGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- S & S FOREST PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TWIN OAK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JIM ESTES OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WETUMPKA HIGHWAY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- D C MERCER SEPTIC TANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wetumpka'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 Wetumpka.
Total Sites
335
within ~10 miles of Wetumpka
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wetumpka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wetumpka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wetumpka, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Wetumpka. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Wetumpka
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 Wetumpka average
Your land is one point inside Wetumpka
Everything above resolves to Wetumpka as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Elmore 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 Wetumpka Average
Wetumpka Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wetumpka
- ●One soil character for all of Wetumpka
- ●Frost dates read at Wetumpka's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wetumpka's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wetumpka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wetumpka, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wetumpka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wetumpka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wetumpka average
How we know this about Wetumpka
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 Elmore 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 Wetumpka
When does frost risk typically end in Wetumpka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wetumpka typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Wetumpka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wetumpka typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 271 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wetumpka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wetumpka sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 12, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wetumpka?
The federal record around Wetumpka is a meaningful one — 335 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (193), 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 Wetumpka?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wetumpka's scale — its 8b band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wetumpka'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 Wetumpka’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Wetumpka's own scale — the 7,087 acres it covers and 335 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wetumpka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 335 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wetumpka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wetumpka's boundary and the 7,087 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wetumpka's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wetumpka has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Elmore County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wetumpka's 7,087 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elmore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elmore 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 Elmore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wetumpka's 7,087 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wetumpka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,087 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 Wetumpka-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaWetumpka sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides