Poinsett County, in Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Poinsett County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Poinsett 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 Poinsett County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Poinsett County — the short answer
Poinsett County, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 485K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 485K 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 Poinsett County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poinsett County's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Poinsett County
Across a year, Poinsett County accumulates about 4,802 growing degree days above 50°F, about 4 fewer than the middle Arkansas county — ahead of 35 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 1,886 hours below 45°F, 106 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 Poinsett County
Across Poinsett County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Sharkey, Henry, and Hillemann are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.7, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
61%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Poinsett County
The USDA soil survey maps 65% of Poinsett County as poorly drained — but another 33% drains differently: 23% somewhat poorly drained, 5% moderately well drained.
Sharkey is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Henry (16%) and Hillemann (10%).
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 Poinsett County
Each reading below is measured for Poinsett 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 Poinsett 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 Poinsett County runs about pH 5.3–6.7, 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
MeasuredPoinsett County runs about 264 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
MeasuredPoinsett 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 Poinsett County is in
Poinsett County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Alluvial Plain (94%) and Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (7%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Poinsett County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Poinsett County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 264-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 Poinsett County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Poinsett County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Poinsett County
USGS estimates 375,799 lb of Glyphosate on Poinsett County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (181,375 lb) and Metolachlor-s (154,720 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 Poinsett County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Poinsett County — 214 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Poinsett 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 Poinsett County
Closest first, across Poinsett County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAWSON FARMS-RAYBOURN RD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #9Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- POINSETT COUNTY RD DEPT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- POINSETT COUNTY FAIRGROUNDBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- POINSETT COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HARRISBURG WATER & GAS WAREHOUUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HARRISBURG CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- JR FOOD MART 106Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 11N03E25ABA1Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- ROY PRINCE'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CARWELL ELEVATOR COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BROWN FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poinsett 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 Poinsett County.
Total Sites
214
across Poinsett County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Poinsett County
Severity Distribution
across Poinsett County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poinsett County, two things run higher than the national average across Poinsett County — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (139 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Poinsett 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 Poinsett County average
Your land is one point inside Poinsett County
Everything above resolves to Poinsett County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 485K 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 Poinsett County Average
Poinsett County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Poinsett County
- ●One soil character for all of Poinsett County
- ●Frost dates read at Poinsett County's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poinsett County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Poinsett County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poinsett County, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poinsett County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poinsett County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poinsett County average
How we know this about Poinsett 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 Poinsett County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Poinsett County
When does frost risk typically end in Poinsett County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poinsett County typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Poinsett County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poinsett County sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 11, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poinsett County?
The federal record around Poinsett County is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Poinsett County's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poinsett 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 Poinsett County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Poinsett County's own scale — its own ~264-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 214 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poinsett County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Poinsett County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Poinsett CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 214 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Poinsett County's boundary and the 485,308 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Poinsett County spans, Mississippi Alluvial Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Poinsett County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Poinsett 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 Poinsett County — the ~264 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 Poinsett County's 485,308 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 214 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 Poinsett Countyread your own land →