The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) spans USDA hardiness zones 8b-9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Alabama's Wiregrass is deep, sandy, acidic Coastal Plain country — the opposite soil story from the alkaline Black Belt clays to its northwest, and the reason this corner became peanut and cotton land (Dothan bills itself the "Peanut Capital of the World"). Inland from the Gulf Coast band, it still runs one of the longest seasons in the state: 270–296 frost-free days and USDA zone 8b, tipping to 9a at Dothan/Houston County where the season matches the coast. Fast-draining, low-pH sand rewards deep-rooted, heat-loving crops and calls for a different water and amendment strategy than the state's heavy interior soils. Expect okra, collard greens, fig, and pecan to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) spans Alabama.
Your yard isn't all of the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama).
The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) spans USDA zones 8b-9a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) — the short answer
The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama): USDA zones 8b-9a, 270–296 frost-free days, in Alabama.
- USDA zones
- 8b-9a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 270–296 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 9
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
Plants matched to the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)'s USDA zones 8b-9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)’s USDA zones 8b-9a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across nine member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Ultisols, at 87% of mapped acres, followed by Entisols (8%), Inceptisols (3%) and Alfisols (1%). Six soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Orangeburg, Troup, and Dothan.
65% of those acres are well drained, and another 12% somewhat excessively drained, 8% poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.8–5.5 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 30% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
4.8–5.5
Hydric soils
10%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Houston County holds the most wetland ground here, at 18% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama). Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records65% of the mapped acres across the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all nine of its mapped counties.
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
From county recordsTopsoil across the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) runs pH 4.8–5.5 — acidic in all nine of them.
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
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) — and how to grow with it.
Across the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)'s 9 counties the federal record holds 2,601 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (1,447), CAFO (501) and Brownfields (343). The heaviest single county is Houston County, with 573.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 9 counties in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama), two things run higher than the national average across the 9 counties in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) — CAFO (501 sites) and PFAS (30 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
Everything above resolves to the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 8b-9a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) Average
Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b-9a, averaged across Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
- ●One soil character for all of Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)'s 8b-9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) average
How we know this about the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
What hardiness zone is the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)?
The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) spans USDA hardiness zones 8b-9a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)'s counties mostly run 274 to 289 frost-free days, median 286 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 9 member counties). That 15-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 9 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)?
Across the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama), the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Feb 15 and Feb 24 (median Feb 19), and their first fall freeze between Nov 27 and Dec 3. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Mar 12, and elevation decides which end of a 9-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)?
The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)'s conditions suit plants such as Okra, Collard Greens, Fig, Pecan, Muscadine Grape. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) defined?
The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) is defined here as a curated cluster of 9 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) cover?
The Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama) spans Alabama. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Appalachia, Piedmont, Gulf Coast, Black Belt, and Tennessee Valley (North Alabama) share at least one state with the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama). Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)'s own scale — the zone 8b-9a band across its footprint, a median 286-day season across its 9 counties and 2,601 documented federal contamination records across its 9 counties, 573 of them in Houston County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 8b-9a aggregated across all 9 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 9 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 9 counties run 274 to 289 frost-free days, median 286NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 2,601 documented federal contamination records across its 9 counties, 573 of them in Houston County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 87% Ultisols, topsoil pH 4.8–5.5, area-weighted across its 9 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 8b-9afrom Alabama
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 15-day range your ground sits at — 274 days at one extreme, 289 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Wiregrass Region (Southeast Alabama)
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Alabama
The vast eastern mountain region of steep hollows, thin acidic soils, and short upland seasons — apples, brambles, ramps, and forest crops on hard-won ground. (Union of the core Appalachian ecoregions.)
The rolling foothill belt between the Appalachians and the coastal plain, defined by heavy red clay soils that reward amendment and drainage. (Southern Piedmont; the Northern Piedmont is a separate ecoregion.)
The humid, near-frost-free coastal rim of the Gulf of Mexico — long seasons, sandy and alluvial soils, heat, and hurricanes shaping what thrives. (Representative coastal counties, not exhaustive.)
A crescent of dark, calcareous shrink-swell prairie clays over Cretaceous Selma chalk, sweeping from central Alabama into northeast Mississippi — famously fertile cotton, soybean, corn, and pasture ground with a long southern growing season.
Alabama's coolest, shortest-season ground — the fertile Tennessee River limestone valley, where sweeter valley-bottom soils and a mid-to-late-March last frost set it apart from the acidic uplands just to the south and the near-frost-free Gulf Coast. (EPA Interior Plateau ecoregion: a limestone river valley, not Appalachian.)