Madison 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.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Madison 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
Madison County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Madison 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 Madison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Madison County — the short answer
Madison County, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 446K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 446K 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 Madison County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madison County's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Madison County
Across a year, Madison County accumulates about 6,604 growing degree days above 50°F, about 781 fewer than the middle Florida county — ahead of 12 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 485 hours below 45°F, 449 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 Madison County
Across Madison County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Blanton, Plummer, and Dorovan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.1, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
4%
Hydric soils
31%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Madison County
The USDA soil survey maps 27% of Madison County as very poorly drained — but another 72% drains differently: 25% well drained, 14% poorly drained.
Blanton is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Plummer (13%) and Dorovan (12%).
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 Madison County
Each reading below is measured for Madison 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 Madison County are very poorly drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Madison County runs about pH 4.8–5.1, 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
Season length
MeasuredMadison County runs about 297 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMadison County 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 Madison County is in
Madison County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (67%) and Southern Coastal Plain (33%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Madison County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Madison County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 297-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 Madison County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What gets applied to farmland in Madison County
USGS estimates 21,386 lb of 2,4-d on Madison County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (8,547 lb) and Atrazine (4,737 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 Madison County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Madison County — 264 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Madison 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 Madison County
Closest first, across Madison County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAVE'S TRUCK STOP #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FAST TRACK #428Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MADISON WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 2.1 mi
- MCIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 02832601MADISON COUNTRY CLUBNitrate · 2.3 mi
- JIMMIES FIRESTONEBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- MADISON CNTY - LAW ENFORCEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HENRY DICKINSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PIRATE LAND ONDA C DENNISUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CHEVRON STATION (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- LAKE PARK OF MADISON NURSING AND REHABILITATION CENTERBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- HAZEL G MCLOUDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madison 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 Madison County.
Sources Checked
across Madison County
Severity Distribution
across Madison County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madison County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 179 sites across Madison County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Madison 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 Madison County average
Your land is one point inside Madison County
Everything above resolves to Madison County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 446K 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 Madison County Average
Madison County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Madison County
- ●One soil character for all of Madison County
- ●Frost dates read at Madison County's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madison County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Madison County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madison County, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madison County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madison County average
How we know this about Madison 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 Madison County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Madison County
When does frost risk typically end in Madison County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madison County typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Madison County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madison County sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 22, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madison County?
The federal record around Madison County is a meaningful one — 264 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (179), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Madison County's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madison 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 Madison County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Madison County's own scale — its own ~297-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 264 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madison County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madison County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~297-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Madison CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 264 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Madison County's boundary and the 445,778 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Madison County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Madison 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 Madison County — the ~297 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 Madison County's 445,778 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 264 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 Madison Countyread your own land →