Mississippi County, in Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Mississippi County lies within the Mississippi Delta — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Mississippi County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Mississippi County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Mississippi County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mississippi County — the short answer
Mississippi County, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 577K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 577K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Mississippi County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mississippi County's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Mississippi County
Across a year, Mississippi County accumulates about 4,869 growing degree days above 50°F, about 63 more than the middle Arkansas county — ahead of 41 of Arkansas’s 75 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,913 hours below 45°F, 133 more than the Arkansas middle of 1,780. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Mississippi County
Across Mississippi County, the ground is predominantly Vertisols, where Sharkey, Steele, and Tunica are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a silty clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.8, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Vertisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
46%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Mississippi County
The USDA soil survey maps 68% of Mississippi County as poorly drained — but another 28% drains differently: 15% somewhat poorly drained, 10% moderately well drained.
Sharkey is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Steele (15%) and Tunica (14%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Mississippi County
Each reading below is measured for Mississippi County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Mississippi County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Mississippi County runs about pH 5.5–6.8, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMississippi County runs about 262 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
MeasuredMississippi County 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 Mississippi County is in
Mississippi County sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Mississippi County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Mississippi County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 262-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Mississippi County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Mississippi County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Mississippi County
USGS estimates 817,489 lb of Glyphosate on Mississippi County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (324,593 lb) and Metolachlor-s (231,011 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Mississippi County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Mississippi County — 537 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Mississippi County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Mississippi County
Closest first, across Mississippi County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUILDING 412Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BUILDING 106Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WESSON FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ALLMANS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PERKIN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- AHTD-OSCEOLA AREA HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 13N09E22BCB1Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- DENSO MANUFACTURING ARKANSASBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- DENSO MANUFACTURING ARKANSASToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
- MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 COMPANY #021630Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- TEXACO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mississippi County'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 Mississippi County.
Total Sites
537
across Mississippi County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Mississippi County
Severity Distribution
across Mississippi County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mississippi County, two things run higher than the national average across Mississippi County — Toxics Release Inventory (66 sites) and Nitrate (150 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mississippi County
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 Mississippi County average
Your land is one point inside Mississippi County
Everything above resolves to Mississippi County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 577K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Mississippi County Average
Mississippi County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mississippi County
- ●One soil character for all of Mississippi County
- ●Frost dates read at Mississippi County's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mississippi County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Mississippi County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mississippi County, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mississippi County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mississippi County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mississippi County average
How we know this about Mississippi County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Mississippi County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Mississippi County
When does frost risk typically end in Mississippi County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mississippi County typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Mississippi County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mississippi County sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 10, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mississippi County?
The federal record around Mississippi County is a meaningful one — 537 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (258), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Mississippi County's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mississippi County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Arkansas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Mississippi County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Mississippi County's own scale — its own ~262-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 537 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mississippi County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mississippi County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Mississippi CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 537 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Mississippi County's boundary and the 577,339 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mississippi County sitting wholly inside the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Mississippi County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Mississippi County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Arkansas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arkansas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Mississippi County — the ~262 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mississippi County's 577,339 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 537 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Mississippi Countyread your own land →