Fifty-Six, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Fifty-Six, 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 Fifty-Six 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 Fifty-Six — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fifty-Six — the short answer
Fifty-Six, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 7b is Fifty-Six's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fifty-Six's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fifty-Six
Each reading below is measured for Fifty-Six itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFifty-Six runs about 239 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
MeasuredFifty-Six sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Fifty-Six is in
Fifty-Six sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fifty-Six's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stone County.
What Grows in Fifty-Six
Every plant below cleared Fifty-Six's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fifty-Six?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Fifty-Six
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fifty-Six. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 15N12W02BCA1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- US FOREST SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UnkMining · 0.6 mi
- NORMAN'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- R & S GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- BRANSCUM'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- well OZ-1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- ATLAS ASPHALT, INC. - MOUNTAIN VIEW PLANTBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- NEW NATA GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- HOLIDAY MOUNTAIN RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- MT. VIEW READY MIX, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- ANGLERS WHITE RIVER RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fifty-Six'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 Fifty-Six.
Total Sites
43
within ~10 miles of Fifty-Six
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fifty-Six
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fifty-Six
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fifty-Six, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 31 sites within ~10 miles of Fifty-Six. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fifty-Six
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 Fifty-Six average
Your land is one point inside Fifty-Six
Everything above resolves to Fifty-Six as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Fifty-Six Average
Fifty-Six Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fifty-Six
- ●One soil character for all of Fifty-Six
- ●Frost dates read at Fifty-Six's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fifty-Six's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fifty-Six
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fifty-Six, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fifty-Six averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fifty-Six — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fifty-Six average
How we know this about Fifty-Six
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 Fifty-Six’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 Fifty-Six
When does frost risk typically end in Fifty-Six?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fifty-Six typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fifty-Six?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fifty-Six typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fifty-Six?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fifty-Six sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 31, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fifty-Six?
The federal record around Fifty-Six shows 43 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Fifty-Six?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fifty-Six's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fifty-Six'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 Fifty-Six’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fifty-Six's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,324 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fifty-Six's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fifty-Six's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 14 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fifty-Six, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fifty-Six's boundary and the 1,324 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fifty-Six's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fifty-Six's 1,324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stone 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 Stone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fifty-Six's 1,324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fifty-Six you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,324 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Fifty-Six-wide figureread your own land →
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