Wilkinson County, in Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Wilkinson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilkinson County — the short answer
Wilkinson County, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 288K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 288K 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 Wilkinson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilkinson County's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Wilkinson County
Across a year, Wilkinson County accumulates about 5,434 growing degree days above 50°F, about 19 more than the middle Georgia county — ahead of 80 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 1,213 hours below 45°F, 77 more 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 Wilkinson County
Across Wilkinson County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Orangeburg, Lakeland, and Ailey are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
19%
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wilkinson County
The USDA soil survey maps 54% of Wilkinson County as well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 17% excessively drained, 12% somewhat poorly drained.
Orangeburg is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Lakeland (16%) and Ailey (6%).
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 Wilkinson County
Each reading below is measured for Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County runs about pH 5.3–5.5, 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
MeasuredWilkinson 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
MeasuredWilkinson 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 Wilkinson County is in
Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Wilkinson County
USGS estimates 1,455 lb of 2,4-d on Wilkinson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (984 lb) and Malathion (556 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 Wilkinson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wilkinson County — 142 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County
Closest first, across Wilkinson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 20W006Nitrate · 2200 ft
- LOYD OIL CO(OLD STATION)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JET #46Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GA DOT #10240 WILKINSON CO MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 20W043Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- ROAD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CHAMBERS STANDARD SERV STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 20W044Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- ACCUCOMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- J M HUBER/WILKINSON COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LOYD OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County.
Total Sites
142
across Wilkinson County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Wilkinson County
Severity Distribution
across Wilkinson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilkinson County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites across Wilkinson County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County average
Your land is one point inside Wilkinson County
Everything above resolves to Wilkinson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 288K 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 Wilkinson County Average
Wilkinson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wilkinson County
- ●One soil character for all of Wilkinson County
- ●Frost dates read at Wilkinson County's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilkinson County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wilkinson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilkinson County, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilkinson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilkinson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilkinson County average
How we know this about Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wilkinson County
When does frost risk typically end in Wilkinson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilkinson County typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Wilkinson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilkinson County sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 13, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilkinson County?
The federal record around Wilkinson County is a meaningful one — 142 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Nitrate 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 Wilkinson County's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Wilkinson County's own scale — its own ~270-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 142 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilkinson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 142 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Wilkinson County's boundary and the 287,502 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wilkinson County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson 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 Wilkinson County's 287,502 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 142 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 Wilkinson Countyread your own land →