Fordyce, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Fordyce, 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 Fordyce 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 Fordyce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fordyce — the short answer
Fordyce, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Dallas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Fordyce's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fordyce's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fordyce
Each reading below is measured for Fordyce itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFordyce runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Dallas County, the closest normal to Fordyce) — 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
MeasuredFordyce 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 Fordyce is in
Fordyce sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fordyce's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dallas County.
What Grows in Fordyce
Every plant below cleared Fordyce's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fordyce?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Fordyce
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fordyce. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GEORGIA PACIFIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC WOOD PRODUCT LLC FORDYCESuperfund · 1400 ft
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC LLC FORDYCE PLYWOODBrownfields · 1600 ft
- GEORGIA-PACIFIC LLC FORDYCE PLYWOODToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- ALLTEL ARKANSAS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- LUCKY K. DARLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- QUALITY AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RONNIE'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- REX'S EXXON (FORMERLY)Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NELSON MEAT MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CROW-BURLINGAME COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GAS PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fordyce'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 Fordyce.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Fordyce
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fordyce
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fordyce
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fordyce, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Fordyce. 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 Fordyce
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 Fordyce average
Your land is one point inside Fordyce
Everything above resolves to Fordyce as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dallas 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 Fordyce Average
Fordyce Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fordyce
- ●One soil character for all of Fordyce
- ●Frost dates read at Fordyce's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fordyce's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fordyce
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fordyce, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fordyce averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fordyce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fordyce average
How we know this about Fordyce
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 Dallas 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 Fordyce
When does frost risk typically end in Fordyce?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fordyce typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Fordyce?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fordyce typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fordyce?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fordyce sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 5, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fordyce?
The federal record around Fordyce is a meaningful one — 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fordyce?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fordyce's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fordyce'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 Fordyce’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fordyce's own scale — the 4,305 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fordyce's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fordyce, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fordyce's boundary and the 4,305 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fordyce's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fordyce has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dallas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fordyce's 4,305 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dallas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dallas 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 Dallas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fordyce's 4,305 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fordyce you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,305 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fordyce-wide figureread your own land →