Dalzell, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Even in Dalzell, 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 Dalzell 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 Dalzell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dalzell — the short answer
Dalzell, South Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Sumter County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Dalzell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dalzell's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dalzell
Each reading below is measured for Dalzell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDalzell runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Sumter County, the closest normal to Dalzell) — 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
MeasuredDalzell 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 Dalzell is in
Dalzell sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dalzell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumter County.
What Grows in Dalzell
Every plant below cleared Dalzell's own zone 8b and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dalzell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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.
Documented around Dalzell
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dalzell checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 104 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dalzell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dalzell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCCARTYS EMPORIUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR 6753Brownfields · 1400 ft
- FORMERLY PAPPAS GEN MDSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WOODROW GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RABONS SAV ONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EEE ZEE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HILLCREST HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- THOMAS SUMTER ACADEMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- AG ROTOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CHAMBERS OF SCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SHAW AIR FORCE BASESuperfund · 2.3 mi
- SC DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTUREBrownfields · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dalzell'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 Dalzell.
Total Sites
428
within ~10 miles of Dalzell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dalzell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dalzell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dalzell, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 284 sites within ~10 miles of Dalzell. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Dalzell
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 Dalzell average
Your land is one point inside Dalzell
Everything above resolves to Dalzell as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sumter County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Dalzell Average
Dalzell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Dalzell
- ●One soil character for all of Dalzell
- ●Frost dates read at Dalzell's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dalzell's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dalzell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dalzell, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dalzell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dalzell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dalzell average
How we know this about Dalzell
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Sumter 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Dalzell
When does frost risk typically end in Dalzell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dalzell typically lands around Mar 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 29.
When is the first frost in Dalzell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dalzell typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dalzell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dalzell sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 14, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dalzell?
The federal record around Dalzell is a meaningful one — 428 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (284), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Dalzell?
From about Oct 29 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 Nov 28 (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 Nov 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dalzell's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dalzell'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 Dalzell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dalzell's own scale — the 3,742 acres it covers and 428 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dalzell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 428 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dalzell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dalzell's boundary and the 3,742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dalzell's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dalzell checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dalzell has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sumter County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dalzell's 3,742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumter County
- The growing challenges every South Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Sumter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dalzell's 3,742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dalzell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,742 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Dalzell-wide figureread your own land →
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