Appling County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Appling County lies within the Vidalia / South Georgia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Appling County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Appling 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 Appling County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Appling County — the short answer
Appling County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 325K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 325K 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 8b is Appling County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Appling County's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Appling County
Across a year, Appling County accumulates about 6,049 growing degree days above 50°F, about 634 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 125 of Georgia’s 159 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 675 hours below 45°F, 461 fewer than the Georgia middle of 1,136. 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 Appling County
Across Appling County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pelham, Leefield, and Surrency are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
13%
Hydric soils
42%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Appling County
The USDA soil survey maps 31% of Appling County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 68% drains differently: 26% poorly drained, 19% very poorly drained.
Pelham is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Leefield (11%) and Surrency (10%).
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 Appling County
Each reading below is measured for Appling 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 Appling County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Appling County runs about pH 4.7–5.3, 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
MeasuredAppling County runs about 289 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
MeasuredAppling County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Appling County is in
Appling County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southern Coastal Plain (69%) and Southeastern Plains (31%). 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 Appling County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Appling County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 289-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 Georgia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Appling County?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Appling County
USGS estimates 41,675 lb of Glyphosate on Appling County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (13,684 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (13,684 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 Appling County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Appling County — 126 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Appling County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Appling County
Closest first, across Appling County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRIES FARMS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HARRIS WASTE MANAGEMENT GROUP INC.Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- INTERFOR U.S. INC. - BAXLEY SAWMILLToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- USNR BAXTLEYToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- USNR LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- BAX-STEEL BUILDINGS INCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- LAWTER INCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- LAWTER INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- HARRIS WASTE MANAGEMENT GROUPToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- ITT RAYONIER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BAXLEY CREOSOTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DIXON TRUCK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Appling 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 Appling County.
Total Sites
126
across Appling County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Appling County
Severity Distribution
across Appling County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Appling County, two things run higher than the national average across Appling County — Underground Storage Tanks (88 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 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 Appling 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 Appling County average
Your land is one point inside Appling County
Everything above resolves to Appling County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 325K 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 Appling County Average
Appling County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Appling County
- ●One soil character for all of Appling County
- ●Frost dates read at Appling County's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Appling County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Appling County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Appling County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Appling County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Appling County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Appling County average
How we know this about Appling 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 Appling County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Appling County
When does frost risk typically end in Appling County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Appling County typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Appling County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Appling County sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 20, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Appling County?
The federal record around Appling County shows 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Appling County's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Appling 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 Georgia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Appling County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Appling County's own scale — its own ~289-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 126 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Appling County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Appling County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~289-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Appling CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 126 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Appling County's boundary and the 325,288 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Appling County spans, Southern Coastal Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Appling County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Appling County — the ~289 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 Appling County's 325,288 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 126 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 Appling Countyread your own land →