Havana, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Havana, 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 Havana 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 Havana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Havana — the short answer
Havana, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 385 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 385 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 8a is Havana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Havana's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Havana
Each reading below is measured for Havana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHavana runs about 249 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
MeasuredHavana 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 Havana is in
Havana sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Havana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yell County.
What Grows in Havana
Every plant below cleared Havana's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Havana?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Havana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Havana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 05N24W11BDC1Nitrate · 650 ft
- 05N24W11BCC1Nitrate · 800 ft
- CROWLEY'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TAPP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WESTERN YELL COUNTY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 06N19W21CDD1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- E& C QUICKSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- HAVANA CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- MT. VIEW GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- GILLESPIE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- SAIN STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- 05N23W16BAB2Nitrate · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Havana'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 Havana.
Total Sites
47
within ~10 miles of Havana
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Havana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Havana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Havana, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Havana — Nitrate (14 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (29 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Havana
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 Havana average
Your land is one point inside Havana
Everything above resolves to Havana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 385 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 Havana Average
Havana Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Havana
- ●One soil character for all of Havana
- ●Frost dates read at Havana's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Havana's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Havana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Havana, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Havana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Havana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Havana average
How we know this about Havana
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 Havana’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 Havana
When does frost risk typically end in Havana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Havana typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Havana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Havana typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Havana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Havana sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 2, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Havana?
The federal record around Havana is light — 47 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Havana?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Havana's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Havana'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 Havana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Havana's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 385 acres it covers and 47 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Havana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Havana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 16 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 47 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Havana, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Havana's boundary and the 385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Havana's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Havana's 385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yell 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 Yell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Havana's 385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Havana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 385 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Havana-wide figureread your own land →
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