Marked Tree, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marked Tree, 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 Marked Tree 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 Marked Tree — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marked Tree — the short answer
Marked Tree, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Marked Tree's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marked Tree's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marked Tree
Each reading below is measured for Marked Tree itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarked Tree runs about 262 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
MeasuredMarked Tree 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 Marked Tree is in
Marked Tree sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marked Tree's own centroid rather than borrowed from Poinsett County.
What Grows in Marked Tree
Every plant below cleared Marked Tree's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marked Tree?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Marked Tree
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marked Tree. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHICKEN STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- VAUGHN FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 11N06E35CDB1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #11Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MARKED TREE JAXXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MID-SOUTH SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RITTER EQUIPMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 11N06E35CDD2Nitrate · 1300 ft
- JORDAN'S KWIK STOP #36Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HATLEY, MRS. W. L.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 11N06E35CAD2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- DELTA TECHNICAL INSTITUTE MARKED TREEBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marked Tree'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 Marked Tree.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Marked Tree
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marked Tree
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marked Tree
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marked Tree, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Marked Tree. 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 Marked Tree
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 Marked Tree average
Your land is one point inside Marked Tree
Everything above resolves to Marked Tree as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Marked Tree Average
Marked Tree Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Marked Tree
- ●One soil character for all of Marked Tree
- ●Frost dates read at Marked Tree's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marked Tree's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marked Tree
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marked Tree, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marked Tree averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marked Tree — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marked Tree average
How we know this about Marked Tree
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 Marked Tree’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 Marked Tree
When does frost risk typically end in Marked Tree?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marked Tree typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Marked Tree?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marked Tree typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marked Tree?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marked Tree sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 10, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marked Tree?
The federal record around Marked Tree shows 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Marked Tree?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marked Tree's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marked Tree'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 Marked Tree’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marked Tree's own scale — its own ~262-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,694 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marked Tree's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marked Tree's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 24 and the ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marked Tree, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marked Tree's boundary and the 3,694 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marked Tree's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marked Tree's 3,694 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Poinsett County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Poinsett 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 Poinsett County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marked Tree's 3,694 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marked Tree you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,694 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 Marked Tree-wide figureread your own land →