Pierce County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Pierce 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
Pierce County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pierce 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 Pierce County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pierce County — the short answer
Pierce County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 218K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 218K 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 Pierce County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pierce County's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Pierce County
Across a year, Pierce County accumulates about 6,216 growing degree days above 50°F, about 801 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 139 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 647 hours below 45°F, 489 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 Pierce County
Across Pierce County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pelham, Leefield, and Robertsdale are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
39%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pierce County
The USDA soil survey maps 38% of Pierce County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 62% drains differently: 28% poorly drained, 16% very poorly drained.
Pelham is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Leefield (12%) and Robertsdale (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 Pierce County
Each reading below is measured for Pierce 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 Pierce County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/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 Pierce County runs about pH 4.8–5.3, 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
MeasuredPierce County runs about 285 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
MeasuredPierce 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 Pierce County is in
Pierce County sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Pierce County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pierce County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 285-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 Pierce 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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (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. 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 Pierce County
USGS estimates 22,855 lb of Glyphosate on Pierce County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (7,500 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (7,500 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 Pierce County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pierce County — 81 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 Pierce 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 Pierce County
Closest first, across Pierce County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIERCE COUNTY ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 28J001Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- GILMAN BUILDING PRODUCTS COToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- UNITED MARKET #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- THOM'S TRANSPORT CO. INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- THOMS TRANSPORT CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GRADY STREET SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- WALKER BROTHERS FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PIERCE COUNTY NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- MATTOX FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BK FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- EDNA RIGGINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pierce 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 Pierce County.
Total Sites
81
across Pierce County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Pierce County
Severity Distribution
across Pierce County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pierce County, two things run higher than the national average across Pierce County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pierce 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 Pierce County average
Your land is one point inside Pierce County
Everything above resolves to Pierce County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 218K 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 Pierce County Average
Pierce County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pierce County
- ●One soil character for all of Pierce County
- ●Frost dates read at Pierce County's scale: Feb 20 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pierce County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pierce County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pierce County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pierce County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pierce County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pierce County average
How we know this about Pierce 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 Pierce County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pierce County
When does frost risk typically end in Pierce County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pierce County typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Pierce County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pierce County sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 18, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pierce County?
The federal record around Pierce County is a meaningful one — 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Pierce County's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pierce 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 Pierce County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Pierce County's own scale — its own ~285-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 81 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pierce County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pierce County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~285-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pierce CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 81 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pierce County's boundary and the 217,897 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pierce County sitting wholly inside the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pierce 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 Pierce County — the ~285 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 Pierce County's 217,897 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 81 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 Pierce Countyread your own land →