Fort Valley, 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.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Valley, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Fort Valley lot. 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 Fort Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Valley — the short answer
Fort Valley, Georgia: USDA zone 8b, about 283 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Peach County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Peach County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~283
- Peach County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Peach County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Fort Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Valley's 283-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Valley
Each reading below is measured for Fort Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Valley runs about 283 days between hard freezes (read from Peach County, the closest normal to Fort Valley) — 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
MeasuredFort Valley 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 Fort Valley is in
Fort Valley sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Peach County.
What Grows in Fort Valley
Every plant below cleared Fort Valley's own zone 8b and its 283-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (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's on the federal record near Fort Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EASTSIDE QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NEIGHBOR'S FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- R & R QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WOOLFOLK CHEMICAL WORKS, INC.Superfund · 1400 ft
- NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILROAD DEPOTSuperfund · 1800 ft
- SUWANEE SWIFTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RAILROAD AGENTS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ANTHOINE MACHINE WORKSSuperfund · 2000 ft
- EAST MAIN GULF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FORMER COTTON SEED OIL MILL (VACANT LOT)Superfund · 2200 ft
- 14U005Nitrate · 2200 ft
- COCA-COLA ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Valley'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 Fort Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Valley — Superfund (15 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Valley
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 Fort Valley average
Your land is one point inside Fort Valley
Everything above resolves to Fort Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Peach County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Fort Valley Average
Fort Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Fort Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Valley's scale: Feb 22 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Valley's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Valley, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Valley average
How we know this about Fort Valley
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Peach County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Fort Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Valley typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Fort Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Valley typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 283 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Valley sees about 283 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 18, about 248 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Valley?
The federal record around Fort Valley is a meaningful one — 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Valley?
From about Nov 2 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Valley's scale — its 8b band and its 283-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Valley's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Fort Valley’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Valley's own scale — the 4,824 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Valley's boundary and the 4,824 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~283-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Valley's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Peach County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Valley's 4,824 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Peach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Peach County
- The growing challenges every Georgia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Georgia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Peach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Valley's 4,824 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,824 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Fort Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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