Alma, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Alma, 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 Alma 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 Alma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alma — the short answer
Alma, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Alma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alma's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alma
Each reading below is measured for Alma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlma runs about 249 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlma sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Alma is in
Alma sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alma's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Crawford County is mostly Boston Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Alma
Every plant below cleared Alma's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alma?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Alma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALMA SCHOOL DIST. BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ALAMO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALMA SUPERSTOP #99Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DOUBLE A CAR SALES, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SARGENTS BP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SARGENT'S 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARTHA'S MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALMA TRAVEL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALMA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ALMA MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WARREN APCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BALLENTINE PRODUCE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alma'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 Alma.
Total Sites
355
within ~10 miles of Alma
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alma, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Alma — PFAS (6 sites) and Nitrate (150 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Alma
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 Alma average
Your land is one point inside Alma
Everything above resolves to Alma as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K acres. 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 Alma Average
Alma Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Alma
- ●One soil character for all of Alma
- ●Frost dates read at Alma's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alma's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alma, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alma average
How we know this about Alma
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 Alma’s own record; 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 Alma
When does frost risk typically end in Alma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alma typically lands around Mar 14, 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 Apr 4.
When is the first frost in Alma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alma typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alma sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 4, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alma?
The federal record around Alma is a meaningful one — 355 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Alma?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alma's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alma'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 Alma’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alma's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,668 acres it covers and 355 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alma's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 18 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 355 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alma's boundary and the 3,668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alma sits in the Arkansas Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alma's 3,668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford County
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alma's 3,668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Alma-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Wider growing context
What grows across ArkansasAlma sits outside our named growing regions, so Arkansas as a whole is its closest context here.