Dooly County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Dooly County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Dooly 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 Dooly County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dooly County — the short answer
Dooly County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 283 days between hard freezes, across 251K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~283
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 251K 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 Dooly County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dooly County's 283-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Dooly County
Across a year, Dooly County accumulates about 5,713 growing degree days above 50°F, about 298 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 100 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 893 hours below 45°F, 243 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 Dooly County
Across Dooly County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Dothan, Tifton, and Faceville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.1–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
58%
Hydric soils
19%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Dooly County
The USDA soil survey maps 68% of Dooly County as well drained — but another 31% drains differently: 18% poorly drained, 7% somewhat poorly drained.
Dothan is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Tifton (15%) and Faceville (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 Dooly County
Each reading below is measured for Dooly 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 Dooly 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 Dooly County runs about pH 5.1–5.5, 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 19% of Dooly 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
MeasuredDooly County runs about 283 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 Dooly County is in
Dooly 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 Dooly County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Dooly County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 283-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 Dooly 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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Dooly County
USGS estimates 143,366 lb of Glyphosate on Dooly County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (67,468 lb) and Dicamba (39,639 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 Dooly County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Dooly County — 132 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 Dooly 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 Dooly County
Closest first, across Dooly County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOOLY COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- RICHARD DOSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- JAMES P WEST JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- VIENNA PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- RACHELS PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 15R005Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- WILLIAM L HORNE JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- LEDFORD FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MID GEORGIA PROCESSING (SHUTTING DOWN)Toxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- 15R004Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- ALTON EDALGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- ZIPPY FOOD MART #322Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dooly 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 Dooly County.
Total Sites
132
across Dooly County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Dooly County
Severity Distribution
across Dooly County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dooly County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 94 sites across Dooly County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Dooly 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 Dooly County average
Your land is one point inside Dooly County
Everything above resolves to Dooly County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 251K 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 Dooly County Average
Dooly County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Dooly County
- ●One soil character for all of Dooly County
- ●Frost dates read at Dooly County's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dooly County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Dooly County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dooly County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dooly County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dooly County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dooly County average
How we know this about Dooly 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 Dooly County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Dooly County
When does frost risk typically end in Dooly County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dooly County typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
How long is the growing season in Dooly County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dooly County sees about 283 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 17, about 248 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dooly County?
The federal record around Dooly County is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Dooly County's scale — its 8b band and its 283-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dooly 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 Dooly County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Dooly County's own scale — its own ~283-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 132 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dooly County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dooly County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~283-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Dooly CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 132 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Dooly County's boundary and the 251,284 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~283-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dooly County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Dooly 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 Dooly County — the ~283 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 Dooly County's 251,284 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 132 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 Dooly Countyread your own land →