El Dorado, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in El Dorado, 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 El Dorado 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 El Dorado — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
El Dorado — the short answer
El Dorado, Arkansas: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- Union County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Union County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Union County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Union County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is El Dorado's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Dorado's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in El Dorado
Each reading below is measured for El Dorado itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEl Dorado runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Union County, the closest normal to El Dorado) — 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
MeasuredEl Dorado sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 El Dorado is in
El Dorado sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at El Dorado's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in El Dorado
Every plant below cleared El Dorado's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in El Dorado?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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.
What's on the federal record near El Dorado
Closest first, within ~10 miles of El Dorado. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GOODYEAR ASC 2633Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- HOLLYWOOD CLEANERSSuperfund · 350 ft
- HOLLYWOOD CLEANERSBrownfields · 350 ft
- SPUR STATION #1230Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- UNION MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- JOHNSON, R. L.Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GOODYEAR AUTO SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 450 ft
- FIRESTONE STORE #4424/004901Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HURRY BACK #2Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SNACK SHACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PARNELL'S 66Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BABCOCK AUTO STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Dorado'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 El Dorado.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of El Dorado
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of El Dorado
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Dorado, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of El Dorado — Superfund (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (33 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in El Dorado
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 El Dorado average
Your land is one point inside El Dorado
Everything above resolves to El Dorado as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Union County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 El Dorado Average
El Dorado Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across El Dorado
- ●One soil character for all of El Dorado
- ●Frost dates read at El Dorado's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Dorado's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in El Dorado
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Dorado, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Dorado averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Dorado — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Dorado average
How we know this about El Dorado
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 Union County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 El Dorado
When does frost risk typically end in El Dorado?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Dorado typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in El Dorado?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in El Dorado typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in El Dorado?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Dorado sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 9, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Dorado?
The federal record around El Dorado is a meaningful one — 429 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (265), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 El Dorado?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at El Dorado's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Dorado'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 El Dorado’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at El Dorado's own scale — the 10,369 acres it covers and 429 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Dorado's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 429 documented contamination sites on the federal record near El Dorado, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- El Dorado's boundary and the 10,369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at El Dorado's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — El Dorado has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Union County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so El Dorado's 10,369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among El Dorado's 10,369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of El Dorado you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 El Dorado-wide figureread your own land →