Arkansas spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-8b, with a growing season of about 254 frost-free days — a long runway that turns one growing season into what colder regions would call two.
Those zone numbers rest on 44-56 inches of annual rainfall, a median of roughly 4,819 growing-degree days (base 50°F), and about 1,780 winter chill hours for tree fruit — the measurements that do the deciding. Underfoot it's mostly silt loam, sandy loam, red clay, and alluvial — and how those drain decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Between Mississippi Delta, The Ozarks, and West Gulf Coastal Plain (South Arkansas), the growing rules shift enough that zone and frost advice only turns precise once you pick your region. Among the crops suited to this profile: tomato, peach, muscadine grape, and sweet potato. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•Chill hours (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Arkansas spans zones 6b-8b, but your yard 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 Arkansas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Distinct growing regions within Arkansas — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Arkansas: USDA zones 6b-8b, 226–284 frost-free days depending on the county, 75 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze. The shortest-season figure is Arkansas's own county record — Benton County's measured 28°F normal, not a modeled floor.
Arkansas does not have one growing season. Across the 481 of its 622 towns that carry their own 30-year record, the shortest measured season is Diamond City's at 215 days and the longest is England's at 281 — a 66-day spread inside one state.
Neither end is a lone reading — another 6 towns measure within 10 days of Diamond City and 20 sit within 10 days of England. These are real pockets, so the number to plant against is your own town's, not the state average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record
Zone 6b-8b is Arkansas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arkansas's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One answer for Arkansas averages 75 counties whose growing seasons are 58 days apart — from 226 frost-free days in Benton County to 284 in Lincoln County. That is the same state, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your county sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 75 counties runs 241–266 days, with a median of 254 days — a 58-day span end to end.
Measured across 75 counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze. A county with no record of its own is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the state. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
The middle half of Arkansas runs 241–266 frost-free days, and 35 of its 75 counties sit outside that — 17 on the short side, 18 on the long. A statewide planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 241 frost-free days
17 counties
3 of 17 shown
The end of the state that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
241–266 frost-free days
40 counties
0 of 40 shown
The middle half of the state, and the part a single statewide date describes well.
Over 266 frost-free days
18 counties
3 of 18 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its own 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a yard within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
The soil types that dominate Arkansas — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Moderate. Silt holds water well and releases it steadily, though the fine particles can crust after hard rain and compact under traffic.
What thrives
The full vegetable garden does well here, and small grains, corn, and leafy greens are classic silt-loam crops. Its steady moisture suits shallow-rooted plants that dislike drought stress.
Drainage
Fast. The sand fraction opens the soil up, so water moves through the root zone quickly and the surface rarely stays soggy. The trade is that nutrients ride out with the water.
What thrives
Root crops love it — carrots, potatoes, radishes, and onions size up cleanly in ground they can push through. Melons, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and most herbs appreciate the warmth and the drainage.
Drainage
Slow. Red clay seals under pounding rain and sheds water across the surface, then holds tight to what soaks in.
What thrives
Okra, southern peas, sweet potatoes, and muscadines are traditional red-clay performers, and many fruit trees root deep into it once through the first year. Azaleas and blueberries appreciate its typical acidity.
Drainage
Usually good: rivers sort their loads, and most alluvial soils have enough sand and silt to move water while holding plenty for roots. Low-lying pockets can run wet.
What thrives
Nearly everything — vegetables, orchards, vines, and berries all prosper on alluvium. Its depth lets roots go as far down as they care to.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Arkansas's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Across Arkansas, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Mar 10, with the middle half of counties between Mar 2 and Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 15 and Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
The plants Arkansas put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Apple blossom
Malus
Designated 1901.
Pinus taeda
Designated 1939. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
South Arkansas vine ripe pink tomato
Designated 1987.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Arkansas — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Arkansas’s zones 6b-8b, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Arkansas’s USDA zones 6b-8b but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
Hot, humid summers drive fungal and bacterial diseases
Morning base-watering, wide spacing, and resistant varieties keep disease manageable — your extension lists what holds up here.
Heavy clay soils in parts of the Ozarks
A raised bed gets you growing this season; compost worked in each fall opens the clay for the long run.
Severe spring storms and hail risk
Keep row cover staged through storm season — five minutes of shelter can save a bed of seedlings from hail.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Arkansas, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Arkansas — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Arkansas — 21,012 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 88 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Arkansas carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Severity Distribution
across Arkansas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arkansas, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 5,938 sites across Arkansas. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Arkansas as a whole — a state whose own counties record seasons 58 days apart, and hardiness across zones 6b-8b. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Arkansas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arkansas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arkansas average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Arkansas spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-8b — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about −5°F to 20°F depending where in Arkansas you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Across Arkansas, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Mar 10, with the middle half of counties between Mar 2 and Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 15 and Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Across Arkansas, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Mar 2 and Mar 20, with a county median near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 31.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Arkansas's counties mostly run about 241 to 266 days, with a county median near 254 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Arkansas's zones 6b-8b support a wide range — strong performers include Tomato, Peach, Muscadine Grape, Sweet Potato, and Blackberry. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Arkansas spans USDA zones 6b-8b (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Arkansas runs heavier than most — 21,012 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10,769) — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Start with three facts. Arkansas spans USDA zones 6b-8b, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Mar 2 to Mar 20 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 21,012 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Arkansas's scale — its 6b-8b band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arkansas's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Arkansas's own scale — the full zone 6b-8b span inside its borders, the 4 soil types that dominate its ground and 21,012 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Arkansas.
