The Black Belt spans USDA hardiness zones 8a-8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A crescent of dark, calcareous shrink-swell prairie clays over Cretaceous Selma chalk, sweeping from central Alabama into northeast Mississippi — famously fertile cotton, soybean, corn, and pasture ground with a long southern growing season. On paper, okra, collard greens, sweet potato, and fig all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
The Black Belt spans Alabama and Mississippi.
Your yard isn't all of the Black Belt.
The Black Belt spans USDA zones 8a-8b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Black Belt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Black Belt — the short answer
The Black Belt: USDA zones 8a-8b, 245–283 frost-free days depending where in it you stand, across 2 states.
- USDA zones
- 8a-8b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Shortest season here
- 245 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020 — Chickasaw County
- Counties
- 23
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. The season figure is this region's own record, measured across its 23 member counties, not a state or national average.
Hardiness Zone Range
The Black Belt is not one growing season
One answer for the Black Belt averages 23 counties whose growing seasons are 38 days apart — from 245 frost-free days in Chickasaw County to 283 in Pike County. That is the same region, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your land sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 23 counties runs 266–276 days, with a median of 272 days — a 38-day span end to end.
Measured across 23 member counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020. A member with no own record is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the region. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
Where the line runs inside the Black Belt
The middle half of the Black Belt runs 266–276 frost-free days, and 8 of its 23 counties sit outside that — 4 on the short side, 4 on the long. A regional planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 266 frost-free days
4 counties
- Chickasaw County · 245 days
- Bullock County · 259 days
- Lowndes County · 263 days
3 of 4 shown
The end of the region that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
266–276 frost-free days
15 counties
0 of 15 shown
The middle half of the region, and the part a single regional season describes well.
Over 276 frost-free days
4 counties
- Pike County · 283 days
- Dallas County · 282 days
- Lowndes County · 279 days
3 of 4 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its OWN 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a site within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
What Grows in the Black Belt
All 2 of the plants below that publish a season requirement clear even Chickasaw County’s 245 frost-free days — so on season alone, this grid works at both ends of the region. The 38-day spread still decides how far past this list you can push, and how early you can start.
Plants matched to the Black Belt's USDA zones 8a-8b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Black Belt
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in all 2 states this region crosses, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Black Belt’s USDA zones 8a-8b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Black Belt
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across 23 member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Ultisols, at 52% of mapped acres, followed by Inceptisols (16%), Alfisols (12%) and Vertisols (12%). Six soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Luverne, Smithdale, and Kipling.
44% of those acres are well drained, and another 24% somewhat poorly drained, 21% moderately well drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.6–7.5 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 30% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
4.6–7.5
Hydric soils
8%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Monroe County holds the most wetland ground here, at 16% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Black Belt
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Black Belt. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records44% of the mapped acres across the Black Belt are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all 23 of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Black Belt runs pH 4.6–7.5 — acidic in 20 of its 23 counties.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Black Belt — and how to grow with it.
Across the Black Belt's 23 counties the federal record holds 5,769 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (3,283), Nitrate (1,070) and Brownfields (757). The heaviest single county is Montgomery County, with 1,385.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Black Belt to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 23 counties in the Black Belt
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Black Belt, two things run higher than the national average across the 23 counties in the Black Belt — CAFO (280 sites) and PFAS (56 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Black Belt
Everything above resolves to the Black Belt as a whole — a footprint whose own counties record seasons 38 days apart, and hardiness across zones 8a-8b. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Black Belt Average
Black Belt Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a-8b, averaged across Black Belt
- ●One soil character for all of Black Belt
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black Belt's 8a-8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Black Belt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Black Belt — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black Belt averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Black Belt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black Belt average
How we know this about the Black Belt
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Black Belt
What hardiness zone is the Black Belt?
The Black Belt spans USDA hardiness zones 8a-8b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Black Belt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Black Belt's counties mostly run 266 to 276 frost-free days, median 272 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 23 member counties). That 10-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 23 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Black Belt?
Across the Black Belt, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Feb 24 and Mar 2 (median Feb 27), and their first fall freeze between Nov 23 and Nov 27. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Mar 20, and elevation decides which end of a 6-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Black Belt?
The Black Belt's conditions suit plants such as Okra, Collard Greens, Sweet Potato, Fig, Pecan, Muscadine Grape. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Black Belt defined?
The Black Belt is defined here as a curated cluster of 23 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Black Belt cover?
The Black Belt spans Alabama and Mississippi. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Appalachia, Piedmont, Mississippi Delta, Gulf Coast, Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama), and North Mississippi Hills (Northeast Hills) share at least one state with the Black Belt. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Black Belt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Black Belt's own scale — the zone 8a-8b band across its footprint, a median 272-day season across its 23 counties and 5,769 documented federal contamination records across its 23 counties, 1,385 of them in Montgomery County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 8a-8b aggregated across all 23 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 23 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 23 counties run 266 to 276 frost-free days, median 272NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 5,769 documented federal contamination records across its 23 counties, 1,385 of them in Montgomery County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 52% Ultisols, topsoil pH 4.6–7.5, area-weighted across its 23 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — all 2 member states' curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 8a-8bfrom Alabama and Mississippi
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 10-day range your ground sits at — 266 days at one extreme, 276 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Black Belt
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Alabama and Mississippi
The vast eastern mountain region of steep hollows, thin acidic soils, and short upland seasons — apples, brambles, ramps, and forest crops on hard-won ground. (Union of the core Appalachian ecoregions.)
The rolling foothill belt between the Appalachians and the coastal plain, defined by heavy red clay soils that reward amendment and drainage. (Southern Piedmont; the Northern Piedmont is a separate ecoregion.)
The flat, deep, dark alluvial bottomland of the lower Mississippi River — extraordinarily fertile cotton, soybean, rice, and sweet-potato ground.
The humid, near-frost-free coastal rim of the Gulf of Mexico — long seasons, sandy and alluvial soils, heat, and hurricanes shaping what thrives. (Representative coastal counties, not exhaustive.)
Alabama's Wiregrass is deep, sandy, acidic Coastal Plain country — the opposite soil story from the alkaline Black Belt clays to its northwest, and the reason this corner became peanut and cotton land (Dothan bills itself the "Peanut Capital of the World"). Inland from the Gulf Coast band, it still runs one of the longest seasons in the state: 270–296 frost-free days and USDA zone 8b, tipping to 9a at Dothan/Houston County where the season matches the coast. Fast-draining, low-pH sand rewards deep-rooted, heat-loving crops and calls for a different water and amendment strategy than the state's heavy interior soils.
Mississippi's only zone-7b country — the high, red-clay hill corner around Corinth, Ripley, Holly Springs and Oxford where the last frost holds until mid-to-late March, roughly three weeks later than the Delta or Gulf. About 240 frost-free days here (versus ~270 for most of the state) and Woodall Mountain, MS's highest point, mean a cooler, shorter planting clock the statewide averages erase — a materially later spring calendar on upland clay soils.