Colquitt County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Colquitt County lies within the Southwest Georgia / Dougherty Plain — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Colquitt County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Colquitt 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 Colquitt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Colquitt County — the short answer
Colquitt County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 305 days between hard freezes, across 350K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~305
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 350K 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 Colquitt County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colquitt County's 305-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Colquitt County
Across a year, Colquitt County accumulates about 6,214 growing degree days above 50°F, about 799 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 138 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 576 hours below 45°F, 560 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 Colquitt County
Across Colquitt County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Alapaha, and Fuquay are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–6.0, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
42%
Hydric soils
29%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Colquitt County
The USDA soil survey maps 51% of Colquitt County as well drained — but another 47% drains differently: 30% poorly drained, 11% somewhat poorly drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 36% of mapped acres, then Alapaha (20%) and Fuquay (8%).
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 Colquitt County
Each reading below is measured for Colquitt 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 Colquitt County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Colquitt County runs about pH 4.7–6.0, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 29% of Colquitt County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredColquitt County runs about 305 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
The kind of country Colquitt County is in
Colquitt County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Colquitt County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Colquitt County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 305-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 Colquitt 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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Colquitt County
USGS estimates 113,262 lb of Glyphosate on Colquitt County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (55,115 lb) and Dicamba (31,570 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 Colquitt County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Colquitt County — 297 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Colquitt 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 Colquitt County
Closest first, across Colquitt County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOWE'S OF MOULTRIE GA #2621Brownfields · 2100 ft
- R&R QUICK MART #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE #1770Brownfields · 2600 ft
- SHELL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 1540 PARKWAY CENTREBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- UNIVERSAL FOREST PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GA DOT #10459/COLQUITT CO MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LARRYS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COLQUITT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FOOD DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BEADLES AND BALFOUR LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CANFOR SOUTHERN PINE- MOULTRIE, GAToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Colquitt 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 Colquitt County.
Total Sites
297
across Colquitt County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Colquitt County
Severity Distribution
across Colquitt County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Colquitt County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites across Colquitt County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Colquitt 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 Colquitt County average
Your land is one point inside Colquitt County
Everything above resolves to Colquitt County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 350K 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 Colquitt County Average
Colquitt County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Colquitt County
- ●One soil character for all of Colquitt County
- ●Frost dates read at Colquitt County's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colquitt County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Colquitt County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colquitt County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colquitt County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colquitt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colquitt County average
How we know this about Colquitt 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 Colquitt County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Colquitt County
When does frost risk typically end in Colquitt County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colquitt County typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Colquitt County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colquitt County sees about 305 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 27, about 270 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colquitt County?
The federal record around Colquitt County is a meaningful one — 297 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (165), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Colquitt County's scale — its 9a band and its 305-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colquitt 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 Colquitt County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Colquitt County's own scale — its own ~305-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 297 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colquitt County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Colquitt County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~305-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Colquitt CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 297 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Colquitt County's boundary and the 350,123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~305-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Colquitt County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Colquitt 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 Colquitt County — the ~305 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 Colquitt County's 350,123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 297 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 Colquitt Countyread your own land →