Stewart County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Stewart County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Stewart 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 Stewart County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stewart County — the short answer
Stewart County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 294K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 294K 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 Stewart County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stewart County's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Stewart County
Across a year, Stewart County accumulates about 5,522 growing degree days above 50°F, about 107 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 87 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 1,040 hours below 45°F, 96 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 Stewart County
Across Stewart County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Nankin, Cowarts, and Orangeburg are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
24%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Stewart County
The USDA soil survey maps 83% of Stewart County as well drained — but another 16% drains differently: 7% poorly drained, 7% somewhat excessively drained.
Nankin is the most extensive named soil at 26% of mapped acres, then Cowarts (22%) and Orangeburg (11%).
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 Stewart County
Each reading below is measured for Stewart 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 Stewart County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Stewart County runs about pH 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
MeasuredStewart County runs about 270 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
MeasuredStewart 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 Stewart County is in
Stewart 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 Stewart County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Stewart County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 270-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 Stewart County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Stewart County
USGS estimates 2,658 lb of Glyphosate on Stewart County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,460 lb) and Metolachlor-s (1,406 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 Stewart County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Stewart County — 56 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Stewart County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Stewart County
Closest first, across Stewart County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REDMAN HOMES INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- FORT OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 07Q001Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- HESTER LOGGING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- S-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- B&H GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- T & T SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 07Q002Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- LUMKIN RADIO RELAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- MOCCASIN GAP TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- GA FC/STEWART CO UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CHAMPION INT'L CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stewart 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 Stewart County.
Total Sites
56
across Stewart County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Stewart County
Severity Distribution
across Stewart County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stewart County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 40 sites across Stewart County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Stewart 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 Stewart County average
Your land is one point inside Stewart County
Everything above resolves to Stewart County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 294K 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 Stewart County Average
Stewart County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Stewart County
- ●One soil character for all of Stewart County
- ●Frost dates read at Stewart County's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stewart County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Stewart County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stewart County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stewart County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stewart County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stewart County average
How we know this about Stewart 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 Stewart County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Stewart County
When does frost risk typically end in Stewart County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stewart County typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Stewart County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stewart County sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 12, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stewart County?
The federal record around Stewart County shows 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Stewart County's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stewart 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 Stewart County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Stewart County's own scale — its own ~270-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 56 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stewart County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stewart County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~270-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Stewart CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 56 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Stewart County's boundary and the 293,610 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stewart County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Stewart 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 Stewart County — the ~270 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 Stewart County's 293,610 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 56 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 Stewart Countyread your own land →