Morrilton, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morrilton, 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 Morrilton 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 Morrilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morrilton — the short answer
Morrilton, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Morrilton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morrilton's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morrilton
Each reading below is measured for Morrilton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorrilton runs about 237 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
MeasuredMorrilton 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 Morrilton is in
Morrilton sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morrilton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Conway County.
What Grows in Morrilton
Every plant below cleared Morrilton's own zone 8a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morrilton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Morrilton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morrilton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GOODYEAR LEASED FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MORRILTON PACKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PETIT JEAN STATE PARK AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RIVERLAND SHOPPING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LONG'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MORRILTON WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MORRILTON, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MORRILTON POLICE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HOME RUN GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SOUTH CONWAY COUNTY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MARGARET'S GRO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AHTD ABANDONEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morrilton'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 Morrilton.
Total Sites
255
within ~10 miles of Morrilton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morrilton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morrilton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morrilton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 150 sites within ~10 miles of Morrilton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Morrilton
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 Morrilton average
Your land is one point inside Morrilton
Everything above resolves to Morrilton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Morrilton Average
Morrilton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Morrilton
- ●One soil character for all of Morrilton
- ●Frost dates read at Morrilton's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morrilton's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morrilton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morrilton, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morrilton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morrilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morrilton average
How we know this about Morrilton
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 Morrilton’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 Morrilton
When does frost risk typically end in Morrilton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morrilton typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Morrilton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morrilton typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morrilton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morrilton sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 27, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morrilton?
The federal record around Morrilton is a meaningful one — 255 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Morrilton?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morrilton's scale — its 8a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morrilton'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 Morrilton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Morrilton's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,650 acres it covers and 255 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morrilton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morrilton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 10 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 255 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morrilton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morrilton's boundary and the 5,650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morrilton's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morrilton's 5,650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Conway County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Conway 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 Conway County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morrilton's 5,650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morrilton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,650 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 Morrilton-wide figureread your own land →
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