Mitchell County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Mitchell 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
Mitchell County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Mitchell 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 Mitchell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mitchell County — the short answer
Mitchell County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 328K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- 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 Mitchell County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mitchell County's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Mitchell County
Across a year, Mitchell County accumulates about 6,096 growing degree days above 50°F, about 681 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 131 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 679 hours below 45°F, 457 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 Mitchell County
Across Mitchell County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Norfolk, and Wagram are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.6, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
55%
Hydric soils
10%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Mitchell County
The USDA soil survey maps 66% of Mitchell County as well drained — but another 33% drains differently: 13% moderately well drained, 10% poorly drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Norfolk (15%) and Wagram (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 Mitchell County
Each reading below is measured for Mitchell 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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell County runs about pH 5.3–5.6, 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
MeasuredMitchell 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
MeasuredMitchell 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 Mitchell County is in
Mitchell 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 Mitchell County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Mitchell 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 Mitchell County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What gets applied to farmland in Mitchell County
USGS estimates 119,664 lb of Glyphosate on Mitchell County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (36,699 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (35,905 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 Mitchell County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Mitchell County — 165 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites. 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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell County
Closest first, across Mitchell County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INLAND #419Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #843Brownfields · 2500 ft
- SOUTHERN CONCRETE CONSTRUCTION CUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NEAL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EXPRESS LANE #57Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SUSIE QS #70Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BROOKS TEXACO SERVUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CROW CHEVROLET BUICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EQUITY GROUP GA DIVISION LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JAMES & HARRY HOLTON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- W T LOWERYS BARBECUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- W POWELL OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mitchell 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 Mitchell County.
Sources Checked
across Mitchell County
Severity Distribution
across Mitchell County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mitchell County, two things run higher than the national average across Mitchell County — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (105 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell County average
Your land is one point inside Mitchell County
Everything above resolves to Mitchell 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 Mitchell County Average
Mitchell County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Mitchell County
- ●One soil character for all of Mitchell County
- ●Frost dates read at Mitchell County's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mitchell County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Mitchell County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mitchell County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mitchell County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mitchell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mitchell County average
How we know this about Mitchell 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 Mitchell County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Mitchell County
When does frost risk typically end in Mitchell County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mitchell County typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Mitchell County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mitchell County sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 21, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mitchell County?
The federal record around Mitchell County is a meaningful one — 165 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mitchell County's scale — its 9a band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mitchell 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 Mitchell County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Mitchell County's own scale — its own ~290-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 165 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mitchell County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mitchell 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 Mitchell CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 165 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Mitchell County's boundary and the 327,781 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mitchell County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Mitchell 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 Mitchell 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 Mitchell County's 327,781 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 165 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 Mitchell Countyread your own land →