Port Wentworth, Georgia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Wentworth, 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 Port Wentworth 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 Port Wentworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Wentworth — the short answer
Port Wentworth, Georgia: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- Chatham County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Chatham County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Chatham County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Chatham County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Port Wentworth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Wentworth's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Wentworth
Each reading below is measured for Port Wentworth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Wentworth runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Chatham County, the closest normal to Port Wentworth) — 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
MeasuredPort Wentworth 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 Port Wentworth is in
Port Wentworth sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Wentworth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chatham County.
What Grows in Port Wentworth
Every plant below cleared Port Wentworth's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Georgia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Wentworth?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Port Wentworth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Wentworth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MURPHY EXPRESS #8567Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CIRCLE K #2705352Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE #2634233Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #0060Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- FAST FUEL 8183Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTERS #071Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ENK820Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PORT WENTWORTHPFAS · 0.8 mi
- FREIGHTLINER OF SAVANNAHBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PORT WENTWORTH CAUSTIC SPILLSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- ROYAL BROS FEED & SEEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EMD PERFORMANCE MATERIALS CORP.Brownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Wentworth'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 Port Wentworth.
Total Sites
658
within ~10 miles of Port Wentworth
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Wentworth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Wentworth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Wentworth, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Port Wentworth — Toxics Release Inventory (58 sites) and Superfund (11 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Port Wentworth
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 Port Wentworth average
Your land is one point inside Port Wentworth
Everything above resolves to Port Wentworth as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chatham 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 Port Wentworth Average
Port Wentworth Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Port Wentworth
- ●One soil character for all of Port Wentworth
- ●Frost dates read at Port Wentworth's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Wentworth's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Wentworth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Wentworth, Georgia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Wentworth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Wentworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Wentworth average
How we know this about Port Wentworth
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 Chatham 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 Port Wentworth
When does frost risk typically end in Port Wentworth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Wentworth typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Port Wentworth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Wentworth typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Wentworth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Wentworth sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 25, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Wentworth?
The federal record around Port Wentworth is a meaningful one — 658 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (382), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Port Wentworth?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Wentworth's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Wentworth'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 Port Wentworth’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Port Wentworth's own scale — the 10,285 acres it covers and 658 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Wentworth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 658 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Wentworth, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Wentworth's boundary and the 10,285 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Wentworth's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Wentworth has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chatham County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Wentworth's 10,285 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chatham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chatham 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 Chatham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Wentworth's 10,285 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Wentworth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,285 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Port Wentworth-wide figureread your own land →
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