Gadsden County, in Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Gadsden County lies within the Florida Panhandle — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Gadsden County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Gadsden County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Gadsden County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gadsden County — the short answer
Gadsden County, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 330K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 330K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 9a is Gadsden County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gadsden County's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Gadsden County
Across a year, Gadsden County accumulates about 6,250 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,135 fewer than the middle Florida county — ahead of 2 of Florida’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 580 hours below 45°F, 544 more than the Florida middle of 36. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Gadsden County
Across Gadsden County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Orangeburg, Fuquay, and Bonifay are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
21%
Hydric soils
19%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Gadsden County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Gadsden County as well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 17% very poorly drained, 9% somewhat poorly drained.
Orangeburg is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Fuquay (9%) and Bonifay (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Gadsden County
Each reading below is measured for Gadsden County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Gadsden County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
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
MeasuredTopsoil across Gadsden County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, on the acidic side.
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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 19% of Gadsden County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGadsden County runs about 299 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Gadsden County is in
Gadsden County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Gadsden County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Gadsden County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 299-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile.
Is it too late to plant in Gadsden County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Gadsden County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Gadsden County
USGS estimates 1,198 lb of Atrazine on Gadsden County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,181 lb) and 2,4-d (868 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Gadsden County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Gadsden County — 344 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Gadsden County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Gadsden County
Closest first, across Gadsden County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHIVER CONTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PERFORMANCE AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- TRULIEVEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- OAKLAND CONCRETE PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- UGLY DUCKLING CAR RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CRAWFORD & SONS OIL COBrownfields · 2300 ft
- QUINCY JOIST COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- QUINCY JOIST COMPANYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- FLETCHER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- QUINCY TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CHRIST TOWN MINISTRIES INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- GADSDEN CNTY BD OF COMMISSIONERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gadsden County'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 Gadsden County.
Sources Checked
across Gadsden County
Severity Distribution
across Gadsden County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gadsden County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 256 sites across Gadsden County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gadsden County
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 Gadsden County average
Your land is one point inside Gadsden County
Everything above resolves to Gadsden County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 330K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Gadsden County Average
Gadsden County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gadsden County
- ●One soil character for all of Gadsden County
- ●Frost dates read at Gadsden County's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gadsden County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Gadsden County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gadsden County, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gadsden County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gadsden County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gadsden County average
How we know this about Gadsden County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Gadsden County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Gadsden County
When does frost risk typically end in Gadsden County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gadsden County typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
How long is the growing season in Gadsden County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gadsden County sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 23, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gadsden County?
The federal record around Gadsden County is a meaningful one — 344 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (256), 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.
Everything above is measured at Gadsden County's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gadsden County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Florida's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Gadsden County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Gadsden County's own scale — its own ~299-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 344 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gadsden County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gadsden County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~299-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Gadsden CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 344 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Gadsden County's boundary and the 330,480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gadsden County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Gadsden County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Gadsden County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Gadsden County — the ~299 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gadsden County's 330,480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 344 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Gadsden Countyread your own land →