Odum, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Odum, 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 Odum 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 Odum — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Odum — the short answer
Odum, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Wayne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Wayne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Wayne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Wayne County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Odum's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Odum's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Odum
Each reading below is measured for Odum itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOdum runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Wayne County, the closest normal to Odum) — 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
MeasuredOdum sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Odum is in
Odum sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Odum's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Odum
Every plant below cleared Odum's own zone 9a and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Odum?
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 4 — 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's on the federal record near Odum
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Odum. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ODUM GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ODUM GROCERY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PEARCES FURNITUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ODUM KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 29M001Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- ODUM STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCREVEN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J & S QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- DOT 10523Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- WAYNE CO MAINT JESUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- MADRAY SPRINGS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Odum'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 Odum.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Odum
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Odum
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Odum
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Odum, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Odum. 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 Odum
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 Odum average
Your land is one point inside Odum
Everything above resolves to Odum as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wayne 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 Odum Average
Odum Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Odum
- ●One soil character for all of Odum
- ●Frost dates read at Odum's scale: Feb 20 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Odum's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Odum
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Odum, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Odum averages can't show:
We read public map data around Odum — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Odum average
How we know this about Odum
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 Wayne 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 Odum
When does frost risk typically end in Odum?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Odum 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.
When is the first frost in Odum?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Odum typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Odum?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Odum sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 20, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Odum?
The federal record around Odum shows 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Odum?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Odum's scale — its 9a band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Odum'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 Odum’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Odum's own scale — the 1,297 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Odum's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Odum, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Odum's boundary and the 1,297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Odum's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Odum has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wayne County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Odum's 1,297 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Odum's 1,297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Odum you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,297 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Odum-wide figureread your own land →
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