Crisp County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Crisp 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
Crisp County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Crisp 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 Crisp County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crisp County — the short answer
Crisp County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 293 days between hard freezes, across 175K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~293
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 175K 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 Crisp County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crisp County's 293-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Crisp County
Across a year, Crisp County accumulates about 5,893 growing degree days above 50°F, about 478 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 113 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 811 hours below 45°F, 325 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 Crisp County
Across Crisp County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Cowarts, and Fuquay are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.0, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
50%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Crisp County
The USDA soil survey maps 68% of Crisp County as well drained — but another 30% drains differently: 19% poorly drained, 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 33% of mapped acres, then Cowarts (11%) and Fuquay (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 Crisp County
Each reading below is measured for Crisp 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 Crisp 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 Crisp County runs about pH 5.3–6.0, 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 20% of Crisp 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
MeasuredCrisp County runs about 293 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 Crisp County is in
Crisp 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 Crisp County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Crisp County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 293-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 Crisp County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 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 Crisp County
USGS estimates 67,979 lb of Glyphosate on Crisp County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (33,249 lb) and Dicamba (19,360 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 Crisp County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Crisp County — 208 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Crisp 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 Crisp County
Closest first, across Crisp County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 15P003Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- ROCKHOUSE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VULCAN MATERIALS CORDELE BLOCK PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- BEST BLOCK - CORDELE, GA BLOCK PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- ANTIQUE MALL/PERLIS REALTY PROPEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- PERLIS TRUCK TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FOLSOM CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 16P008Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- CRISP COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PERLIS PROPERTY SW QUADRANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CORDELEPFAS · 2.0 mi
- COLONIAL BAKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crisp 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 Crisp County.
Total Sites
208
across Crisp County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Crisp County
Severity Distribution
across Crisp County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crisp County, two things run higher than the national average across Crisp County — Toxics Release Inventory (20 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (130 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Crisp 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 Crisp County average
Your land is one point inside Crisp County
Everything above resolves to Crisp County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 175K 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 Crisp County Average
Crisp County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Crisp County
- ●One soil character for all of Crisp County
- ●Frost dates read at Crisp County's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crisp County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Crisp County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crisp County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crisp County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crisp County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crisp County average
How we know this about Crisp 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 Crisp County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Crisp County
When does frost risk typically end in Crisp County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crisp 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 Crisp County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crisp County sees about 293 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 20, about 258 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crisp County?
The federal record around Crisp County is a meaningful one — 208 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (130), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Crisp County's scale — its 8b band and its 293-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crisp 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 Crisp County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Crisp County's own scale — its own ~293-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 208 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crisp County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crisp County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~293-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Crisp CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 208 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Crisp County's boundary and the 174,516 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~293-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crisp County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Crisp 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 Crisp County — the ~293 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 Crisp County's 174,516 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 208 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 Crisp Countyread your own land →