Alma, Georgia, 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.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Alma, 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 Alma 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 Alma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alma — the short answer
Alma, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Bacon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Bacon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Bacon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Bacon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Alma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alma's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alma
Each reading below is measured for Alma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlma runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Bacon County, the closest normal to Alma) — 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
MeasuredAlma 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 Alma is in
Alma sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bacon County.
What Grows in Alma
Every plant below cleared Alma's own zone 9a and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alma?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Alma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALMA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- PARKER FOOD MART #1Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DIXIE CONCRETE SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- AA INJECTION AND TURBO SVC INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- NEWBERRY'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ALMA TELEPHONE CO INC WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ALMA-BACON COUNTY GAS PUMPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 26L004Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 26L001Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- CITY OF ALMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- D & D EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- QUINTON BOATRIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alma'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 Alma.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Alma
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alma, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Alma — Underground Storage Tanks (62 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Alma
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 Alma average
Your land is one point inside Alma
Everything above resolves to Alma as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bacon 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 Alma Average
Alma Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Alma
- ●One soil character for all of Alma
- ●Frost dates read at Alma's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alma's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alma, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alma average
How we know this about Alma
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 Bacon 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 Alma
When does frost risk typically end in Alma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alma typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Alma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alma typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alma sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 21, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alma?
The federal record around Alma shows 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alma?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alma's scale — its 9a band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alma'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 Alma’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alma's own scale — the 3,901 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alma's boundary and the 3,901 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alma's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alma has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bacon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alma's 3,901 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bacon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bacon County
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bacon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alma's 3,901 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,901 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alma-wide figureread your own land →
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