Keiser, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Keiser, 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 Keiser 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 Keiser — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Keiser — the short answer
Keiser, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 274 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 274 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 Keiser's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keiser's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keiser
Each reading below is measured for Keiser itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeiser runs about 257 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
MeasuredKeiser 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 Keiser is in
Keiser sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Keiser's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mississippi County.
What Grows in Keiser
Every plant below cleared Keiser's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keiser?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Keiser
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keiser. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NE RESEARCH & EXTENSION CTR UUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RIVERCREST NORTH JR. HIGHUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 12N09E11DBB1Nitrate · 550 ft
- 12N09E11DBB2Nitrate · 550 ft
- MC LEAN, MICKEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- EATMON'S CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 12N09E11DBB3Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 12N09E14DBB1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- REMURIATE ARKANSAS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- AGRILIANCE KEISERBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- CRS @ MISSISSIPPI COUNTY GREEN POINT AGBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- 12N09E04ABC1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keiser'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 Keiser.
Total Sites
159
within ~10 miles of Keiser
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keiser
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keiser
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keiser, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Keiser — Toxics Release Inventory (25 sites) and Nitrate (56 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Keiser
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 Keiser average
Your land is one point inside Keiser
Everything above resolves to Keiser as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 274 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 Keiser Average
Keiser Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Keiser
- ●One soil character for all of Keiser
- ●Frost dates read at Keiser's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keiser's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keiser
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keiser, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keiser averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keiser — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keiser average
How we know this about Keiser
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 Keiser’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 Keiser
When does frost risk typically end in Keiser?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keiser typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Keiser?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keiser typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keiser?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keiser sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 7, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keiser?
The federal record around Keiser is a meaningful one — 159 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Keiser?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keiser's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keiser'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 Keiser’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keiser's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 274 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keiser's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keiser's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 21 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keiser, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keiser's boundary and the 274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keiser's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keiser's 274 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mississippi County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mississippi 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 Mississippi County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keiser's 274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keiser you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 274 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Keiser-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arkansas
Growing region