Early County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Early 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
Early County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Early 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 Early County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Early County — the short answer
Early County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 328K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 328K 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 Early County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Early County's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Early County
Across a year, Early County accumulates about 6,055 growing degree days above 50°F, about 640 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 126 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 691 hours below 45°F, 445 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 Early County
Across Early County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Norfolk, and Grady are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
60%
Hydric soils
21%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Early County
The USDA soil survey maps 65% of Early County as well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 19% poorly drained, 8% moderately well drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Norfolk (12%) and Grady (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 Early County
Each reading below is measured for Early 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 Early 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 Early County runs about pH 5.3–5.5, 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 21% of Early 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
MeasuredEarly County runs about 292 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 Early County is in
Early 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 Early County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Early County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 292-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 Early County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Early County
USGS estimates 78,422 lb of Glyphosate on Early County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (27,235 lb) and Acetochlor (26,251 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 Early County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Early County — 122 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 Superfund sites (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 Early 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 Early County
Closest first, across Early County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-1 SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- US POSTAL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BLAKELYPFAS · 2.5 mi
- QUIK STOP #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ELLIOTT'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GRIST OIL #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- LOVE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GA DOT #10422/EARLY CO MAINT HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- COUNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- EARLY COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- QUICK BUYS #104Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 07J001Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Early 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 Early County.
Total Sites
122
across Early County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Early County
Severity Distribution
across Early County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Early County, two things run higher than the national average across Early County — Superfund (10 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Early 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 Early County average
Your land is one point inside Early County
Everything above resolves to Early County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 328K 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 Early County Average
Early County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Early County
- ●One soil character for all of Early County
- ●Frost dates read at Early County's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Early County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Early County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Early County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Early County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Early County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Early County average
How we know this about Early 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 Early County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Early County
When does frost risk typically end in Early County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Early County typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Early County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Early County sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 18, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Early County?
The federal record around Early County is a meaningful one — 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Early County's scale — its 9a band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Early 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 Early County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Early County's own scale — its own ~292-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 122 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Early County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Early County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~292-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Early CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 122 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Early County's boundary and the 328,063 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Early County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Early 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 Early County — the ~292 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 Early County's 328,063 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 122 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 Early Countyread your own land →