Jeff Davis County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Jeff Davis County lies within the Vidalia / South Georgia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Jeff Davis County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jeff Davis County — the short answer
Jeff Davis County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 212K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 212K 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 Jeff Davis County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jeff Davis County's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Jeff Davis County
Across a year, Jeff Davis County accumulates about 6,029 growing degree days above 50°F, about 614 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 122 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 688 hours below 45°F, 448 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 Jeff Davis County
Across Jeff Davis County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pelham, Leefield, and Troup are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
12%
Hydric soils
38%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Jeff Davis County
The USDA soil survey maps 31% of Jeff Davis County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 68% drains differently: 28% poorly drained, 19% well drained.
Pelham is the most extensive named soil at 26% of mapped acres, then Leefield (13%) and Troup (7%).
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 Jeff Davis County
Each reading below is measured for Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group B/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 Jeff Davis County runs about pH 4.7–5.3, 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
MeasuredJeff Davis County runs about 290 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
MeasuredJeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County is in
Jeff Davis County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southern Coastal Plain (56%) and Southeastern Plains (44%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Jeff Davis County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Jeff Davis County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 290-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 Jeff Davis 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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What gets applied to farmland in Jeff Davis County
USGS estimates 36,092 lb of Glyphosate on Jeff Davis County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (19,570 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (14,894 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 Jeff Davis County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Jeff Davis County — 117 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 Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County
Closest first, across Jeff Davis County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GAINER BROTHERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BEASLEY TIMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HAZLEHURST WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 2.0 mi
- MILLER-GODLEY AUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 25N001Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- SOUTH GA GIN CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FAST BREAK #3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GA FORESTRY COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- JACKETS STOP N SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- QWIK PIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- COTTON PATCH QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- JEFF DAVIS SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County.
Total Sites
117
across Jeff Davis County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Jeff Davis County
Severity Distribution
across Jeff Davis County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jeff Davis County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 94 sites across Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County average
Your land is one point inside Jeff Davis County
Everything above resolves to Jeff Davis County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 212K 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 Jeff Davis County Average
Jeff Davis County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Jeff Davis County
- ●One soil character for all of Jeff Davis County
- ●Frost dates read at Jeff Davis County's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jeff Davis County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Jeff Davis County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jeff Davis County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jeff Davis County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jeff Davis County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jeff Davis County average
How we know this about Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Jeff Davis County
When does frost risk typically end in Jeff Davis County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jeff Davis County typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
How long is the growing season in Jeff Davis County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jeff Davis County sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 20, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jeff Davis County?
The federal record around Jeff Davis County is a meaningful one — 117 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Jeff Davis County's scale — its 9a band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Jeff Davis County's own scale — its own ~290-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 117 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jeff Davis County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jeff Davis County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~290-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Jeff Davis CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 117 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Jeff Davis County's boundary and the 211,788 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Jeff Davis County spans, Southern Coastal Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Jeff Davis 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 Jeff Davis County — the ~290 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 Jeff Davis County's 211,788 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 117 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 Jeff Davis Countyread your own land →