Cotton Plant, 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.
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 Cotton Plant, 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 Cotton Plant 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 Cotton Plant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cotton Plant — the short answer
Cotton Plant, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 665 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 665 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 Cotton Plant's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cotton Plant's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cotton Plant
Each reading below is measured for Cotton Plant itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCotton Plant runs about 273 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredCotton Plant 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 Cotton Plant is in
Cotton Plant sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cotton Plant's own centroid rather than borrowed from Woodruff County.
What Grows in Cotton Plant
Every plant below cleared Cotton Plant's own zone 8a and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cotton Plant?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (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.
What's on the federal record near Cotton Plant
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cotton Plant. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREG'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- COTTON PLANT SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- M S EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 05N02W31DCB3Nitrate · 1100 ft
- 05N02W31DCB1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- SCOTT'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 05N02W31DCB2Nitrate · 1300 ft
- WEST END CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 05N03W34DDC1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 05N03W26BCB1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 05N02W27CBA1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 05N03W28ACB2Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cotton Plant'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 Cotton Plant.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Cotton Plant
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cotton Plant
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cotton Plant
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cotton Plant, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 108 sites within ~10 miles of Cotton Plant. 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).
Check your specific parcel in Cotton Plant
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 Cotton Plant average
Your land is one point inside Cotton Plant
Everything above resolves to Cotton Plant as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 665 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 Cotton Plant Average
Cotton Plant Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cotton Plant
- ●One soil character for all of Cotton Plant
- ●Frost dates read at Cotton Plant's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cotton Plant's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cotton Plant
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cotton Plant, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cotton Plant averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cotton Plant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cotton Plant average
How we know this about Cotton Plant
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 Cotton Plant’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 Cotton Plant
When does frost risk typically end in Cotton Plant?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cotton Plant typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Cotton Plant?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cotton Plant 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 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cotton Plant?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cotton Plant sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 14, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cotton Plant?
The federal record around Cotton Plant shows 162 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (108), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cotton Plant?
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 Cotton Plant's scale — its 8a band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cotton Plant'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 Cotton Plant’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cotton Plant's own scale — its own ~273-day season between 28°F freezes, the 665 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cotton Plant's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cotton Plant's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 28 and Nov 28 and the ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cotton Plant, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cotton Plant's boundary and the 665 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cotton Plant's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cotton Plant's 665 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Woodruff County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Woodruff 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 Woodruff County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cotton Plant's 665 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cotton Plant you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 665 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Cotton Plant-wide figureread your own land →
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