Cohutta, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cohutta, 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 Cohutta 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 Cohutta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cohutta — the short answer
Cohutta, Georgia: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 8a is Cohutta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cohutta's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cohutta
Each reading below is measured for Cohutta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCohutta runs about 249 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCohutta sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Cohutta is in
Cohutta sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cohutta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Whitfield County.
What Grows in Cohutta
Every plant below cleared Cohutta's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cohutta?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Cohutta
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cohutta checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 113 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cohutta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cohutta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SANCO INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- COHUTTA HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WORLD WIDE INTERIORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MANIS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 06PP06Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #2723501Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FLOWERS THRIFT STORE & WHSE.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TEMPLE CENTRAL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Red Clay State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Wheeler's Dairy FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WELLER TRUCKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- C&W GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cohutta'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 Cohutta.
Total Sites
186
within ~10 miles of Cohutta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cohutta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cohutta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cohutta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cohutta — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cohutta
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 Cohutta average
Your land is one point inside Cohutta
Everything above resolves to Cohutta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 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 Cohutta Average
Cohutta Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cohutta
- ●One soil character for all of Cohutta
- ●Frost dates read at Cohutta's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cohutta's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cohutta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cohutta, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cohutta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cohutta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cohutta average
How we know this about Cohutta
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 Cohutta’s own record; 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 Cohutta
When does frost risk typically end in Cohutta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cohutta typically lands around Mar 14, 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 Apr 4.
When is the first frost in Cohutta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cohutta typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cohutta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cohutta sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 4, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cohutta?
The federal record around Cohutta is a meaningful one — 186 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.7 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 Cohutta?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cohutta's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cohutta'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 Cohutta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cohutta's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,511 acres it covers and 186 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cohutta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cohutta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 18 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 186 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cohutta, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cohutta's boundary and the 3,511 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cohutta's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cohutta checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cohutta's 3,511 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whitfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whitfield 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 Whitfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cohutta's 3,511 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cohutta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,511 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.7 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 Cohutta-wide figureread your own land →
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