Tift County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Tift 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
Tift County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Tift 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 Tift County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tift County — the short answer
Tift County, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 167K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 167K 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 Tift County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tift County's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Tift County
Across a year, Tift County accumulates about 5,994 growing degree days above 50°F, about 579 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 120 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 651 hours below 45°F, 485 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 Tift County
Across Tift County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Tifton, Alapaha, and Dothan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.0, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
45%
Hydric soils
28%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Tift County
The USDA soil survey maps 57% of Tift County as well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 30% poorly drained, 8% somewhat poorly drained.
Tifton is the most extensive named soil at 35% of mapped acres, then Alapaha (12%) and Dothan (8%).
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 Tift County
Each reading below is measured for Tift 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 Tift 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 Tift County runs about pH 5.3–6.0, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 28% of Tift County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredTift County runs about 300 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
The kind of country Tift County is in
Tift 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 Tift County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Tift County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 300-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 Tift County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What gets applied to farmland in Tift County
USGS estimates 49,576 lb of Glyphosate on Tift County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (24,516 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (14,064 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 Tift County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Tift County — 307 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 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 Tift 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 Tift County
Closest first, across Tift County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- APC #450Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- KMART #7028Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- BP QUICK CHANGE #82Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- AARON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1234Brownfields · 1100 ft
- XPRESS MART #116Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TIFT CO SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GEORGIA DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATION - DISTRICT 4 ADMINISTRATION OFFICEToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- BOBS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET 1422 PUBLIX PLAZA AT TIFTONBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ADCOCK PECAN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- QUICK CHANGE #74Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tift 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 Tift County.
Sources Checked
across Tift County
Severity Distribution
across Tift County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tift County, two things run higher than the national average across Tift County — Superfund (6 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Tift 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 Tift County average
Your land is one point inside Tift County
Everything above resolves to Tift County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 167K 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 Tift County Average
Tift County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Tift County
- ●One soil character for all of Tift County
- ●Frost dates read at Tift County's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tift County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Tift County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tift County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tift County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tift County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tift County average
How we know this about Tift 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 Tift County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Tift County
When does frost risk typically end in Tift County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tift County typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Tift County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tift County sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 22, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tift County?
The federal record around Tift County is a meaningful one — 307 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (212), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tift County's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tift 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 Tift County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Tift County's own scale — its own ~300-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 307 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tift County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tift County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~300-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Tift CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 307 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Tift County's boundary and the 166,970 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tift County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Tift 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 Tift County — the ~300 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 Tift County's 166,970 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 307 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 Tift Countyread your own land →