Muscogee County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Muscogee County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Muscogee 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 Muscogee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Muscogee County — the short answer
Muscogee County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 139K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- 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
- 139K 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 Muscogee County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Muscogee County's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Muscogee County
Across a year, Muscogee County accumulates about 5,601 growing degree days above 50°F, about 186 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 90 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 1,066 hours below 45°F, 70 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 Muscogee County
Across Muscogee County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pacolet, Troup, and Dothan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
12%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Muscogee County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Muscogee County as well drained — but another 33% drains differently: 14% somewhat excessively drained, 8% moderately well drained.
Pacolet is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Troup (12%) and Dothan (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 Muscogee County
Each reading below is measured for Muscogee 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 Muscogee 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 Muscogee County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredMuscogee 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
MeasuredMuscogee County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Muscogee County is in
Muscogee County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (61%) and Piedmont (39%). 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 Muscogee County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Muscogee County's own USDA zone 8b 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 Muscogee 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 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. 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 Muscogee County
USGS estimates 514 lb of 2,4-d on Muscogee County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (95 lb) and Glyphosate (74 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 Muscogee County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Muscogee County — 687 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 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 Muscogee 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 Muscogee County
Closest first, across Muscogee County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEMIRA CHEMICALS INC - COLUMBUS PLANTBrownfields · 700 ft
- KEMIRA CHEMICALS INC - COLUMBUS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- HPPE SURFACTANT SPILLBrownfields · 1000 ft
- HPPE SURFACTANT SPILLToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- HPPE SURFACTANT SPILLSuperfund · 1000 ft
- HARR CONN CHROMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HAR-CONN CHROME COToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- KODAK POLYCHROME GRAPHICSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WESTVACO CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANYBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CESSNA AIRCRAFT COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- STEPAN COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Muscogee 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 Muscogee County.
Total Sites
687
across Muscogee County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Muscogee County
Severity Distribution
across Muscogee County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Muscogee County, two things run higher than the national average across Muscogee County — Toxics Release Inventory (55 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (517 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 Muscogee 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 Muscogee County average
Your land is one point inside Muscogee County
Everything above resolves to Muscogee County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 139K 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 Muscogee County Average
Muscogee County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Muscogee County
- ●One soil character for all of Muscogee County
- ●Frost dates read at Muscogee County's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Muscogee County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Muscogee County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Muscogee County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Muscogee County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Muscogee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Muscogee County average
How we know this about Muscogee 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 Muscogee County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Muscogee County
When does frost risk typically end in Muscogee County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Muscogee 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 Muscogee County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Muscogee 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 Muscogee County?
The federal record around Muscogee County is a meaningful one — 687 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (517), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Muscogee County's scale — its 8b band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Muscogee 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 Muscogee County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Muscogee County's own scale — its own ~290-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 687 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Muscogee County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Muscogee 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 Muscogee CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 687 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Muscogee County's boundary and the 138,560 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Muscogee County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Muscogee 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 Muscogee 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 Muscogee County's 138,560 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 687 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 Muscogee Countyread your own land →