Moro, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Moro, 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 Moro 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 Moro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moro — the short answer
Moro, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 618 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 618 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Lee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Moro's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moro's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moro
Each reading below is measured for Moro itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMoro runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Lee County, the closest normal to Moro) — 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
MeasuredMoro 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 Moro is in
Moro sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Moro's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Moro
Every plant below cleared Moro's own zone 8a and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moro?
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 Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Moro
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moro. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- P HARRIS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TOWNSEND, JUDY & VERNONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LANARD'S AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 02N01E23BAA2Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 02N01E17BCC1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- WOODRUFF ELECTRIC CO-OP CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 02N02E19CAA1Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- NEELY CONVENIENT MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- 03N02E29DAD1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- FLOWERS BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- 03N01E17DAB1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moro'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 Moro.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moro
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moro, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Moro. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Moro
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 Moro average
Your land is one point inside Moro
Everything above resolves to Moro as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 618 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lee County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Moro Average
Moro Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Moro
- ●One soil character for all of Moro
- ●Frost dates read at Moro's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moro's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moro
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moro, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moro averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moro — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moro average
How we know this about Moro
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 Lee County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Moro
When does frost risk typically end in Moro?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moro typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Moro?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moro typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moro?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moro sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 14, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moro?
The federal record around Moro is light — 41 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Moro?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moro's scale — its 8a band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moro'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 Moro’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Moro's own scale — the 618 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moro's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moro, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moro's boundary and the 618 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moro's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Moro has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moro's 618 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moro's 618 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moro you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 618 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 Moro-wide figureread your own land →
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