Hector, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hector, 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 Hector 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 Hector — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hector — the short answer
Hector, Arkansas: USDA zone 7b, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Hector's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hector's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hector
Each reading below is measured for Hector itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHector runs about 241 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
MeasuredHector 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 Hector is in
Hector sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hector's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pope County.
What Grows in Hector
Every plant below cleared Hector's own zone 7b and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hector?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Hector
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hector. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CHUCK'S SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HECTOR PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BUDDY BEAR TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- RAY'S ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HECTOR CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- C & R SCOTTSVILLE COUNTRY STORUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- COUNTRY CORNER STORE & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 09N19W18CDA1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- CHROMSTER'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- APPLETON AUTO SALES & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- US FOREST SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hector'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 Hector.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hector
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hector
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hector, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Hector. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hector
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 Hector average
Your land is one point inside Hector
Everything above resolves to Hector 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 town 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 Hector Average
Hector Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hector
- ●One soil character for all of Hector
- ●Frost dates read at Hector's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hector's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hector
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hector, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hector averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hector — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hector average
How we know this about Hector
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hector’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Hector
When does frost risk typically end in Hector?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hector typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Hector?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hector typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hector?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hector sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hector?
The federal record around Hector is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hector?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hector's scale — its 7b band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hector'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 Hector’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hector's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,463 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hector's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hector's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 15 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hector, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hector's boundary and the 1,463 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hector's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hector's 1,463 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pope County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pope 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 Pope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hector's 1,463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hector you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hector-wide figureread your own land →
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