Hunter, 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 Hunter, 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 Hunter 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 Hunter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hunter — the short answer
Hunter, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 396 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 396 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 Hunter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hunter's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hunter
Each reading below is measured for Hunter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHunter runs about 269 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredHunter 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 Hunter is in
Hunter sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hunter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Woodruff County.
What Grows in Hunter
Every plant below cleared Hunter's own zone 8a and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hunter?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Hunter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hunter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 05N01W20CBB1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 05N01W36BAB1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- 05N02W27CBA1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 06N01W22CAB1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- 04N01W17ABD1Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- CRAIN'S GROCERY AND SERVICE STUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- 05N01E21CDD1Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- 04N01W13AAB1Nitrate · 7.1 mi
- 05N02W06CAC1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- 06N01W10AB1Nitrate · 7.7 mi
- 05N02W31DCB2Nitrate · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hunter'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 Hunter.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hunter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hunter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hunter, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Hunter. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hunter
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 Hunter average
Your land is one point inside Hunter
Everything above resolves to Hunter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 396 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 Hunter Average
Hunter Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hunter
- ●One soil character for all of Hunter
- ●Frost dates read at Hunter's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hunter's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hunter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hunter, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hunter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hunter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hunter average
How we know this about Hunter
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 Hunter’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 Hunter
When does frost risk typically end in Hunter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hunter typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Hunter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hunter typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hunter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hunter sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 12, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hunter?
The federal record around Hunter shows 74 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hunter?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hunter's scale — its 8a band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hunter'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 Hunter’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hunter's own scale — its own ~269-day season between 28°F freezes, the 396 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hunter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hunter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 2 and Nov 26 and the ~269-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hunter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hunter's boundary and the 396 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hunter's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hunter's 396 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Woodruff County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Woodruff 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 Woodruff County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hunter's 396 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hunter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 396 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 Hunter-wide figureread your own land →
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