Charlton County, in 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Charlton County lies within the Deep South Georgia / Wiregrass — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Charlton County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Charlton 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 Charlton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Charlton County — the short answer
Charlton County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 499K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 499K 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 Charlton County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charlton County's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Charlton County
Across a year, Charlton County accumulates about 6,680 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,265 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of every other Georgia county. 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 498 hours below 45°F, 638 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 Charlton County
Across Charlton County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Dasher, Leon, and Pelham are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.1, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
0%
Hydric soils
90%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Charlton County
The USDA soil survey maps 45% of Charlton County as poorly drained — but another 54% drains differently: 44% very poorly drained, 8% somewhat poorly drained.
Dasher is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Leon (13%) and Pelham (11%).
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 Charlton County
Each reading below is measured for Charlton 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 Charlton County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/D — 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 Charlton County runs about pH 4.6–5.1, 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
MeasuredCharlton County runs about 298 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
MeasuredCharlton 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 Charlton County is in
Charlton County sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Charlton County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Charlton County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 298-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 Charlton 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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Charlton County
USGS estimates 900 lb of 2,4-d on Charlton County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Malathion (556 lb) and Glyphosate (429 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 Charlton County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Charlton County — 65 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Charlton 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 Charlton County
Closest first, across Charlton County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OKEFENOKEE NNWRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- OKEFENOKEE NWRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- GA FC/CHARLTON CO UNIT/FOLKSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 28D001Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- FOLKSTON-BHA GROUP INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 7.7 mi
- FLASH FOODS #107Underground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
- ALLTEL/GTE/FOLKSTON CENTRAL OFFIUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- HOPKINS-GOWEN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- CULPEPER WOOD PRESERVERSToxics Release Inventory · 8.3 mi
- UNION CAMP CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- FLASH FOODS #35Underground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- CITY OF FOLKSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charlton 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 Charlton County.
Total Sites
65
across Charlton County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Charlton County
Severity Distribution
across Charlton County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charlton County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 49 sites across Charlton County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Charlton 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 Charlton County average
Your land is one point inside Charlton County
Everything above resolves to Charlton County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 499K 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 Charlton County Average
Charlton County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Charlton County
- ●One soil character for all of Charlton County
- ●Frost dates read at Charlton County's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charlton County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Charlton County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charlton County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charlton County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charlton County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charlton County average
How we know this about Charlton 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 Charlton County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Charlton County
When does frost risk typically end in Charlton County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charlton County typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 7.
How long is the growing season in Charlton County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charlton County sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 25, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charlton County?
The federal record around Charlton County shows 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 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 Charlton County's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charlton 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 Charlton County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Charlton County's own scale — its own ~298-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 65 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charlton County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charlton County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~298-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Charlton CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 65 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Charlton County's boundary and the 499,259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Charlton County sitting wholly inside the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Charlton 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 Charlton County — the ~298 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 Charlton County's 499,259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 65 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 Charlton Countyread your own land →