Pottsville, 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.
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 Pottsville, 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 Pottsville 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 Pottsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pottsville — the short answer
Pottsville, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 9K 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Pottsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pottsville's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pottsville
Each reading below is measured for Pottsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPottsville runs about 243 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
MeasuredPottsville 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 Pottsville is in
Pottsville sits in the Arkansas Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pottsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pope County.
What Grows in Pottsville
Every plant below cleared Pottsville's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pottsville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Pottsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pottsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHERMAN'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- POTTSVILLE SCHOOL SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TRI-COUNTY WATER DISTBR DISTPFAS · 1.5 mi
- POTTSVILLE WATER ASSOCIATIONPFAS · 1.5 mi
- ATKINS WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.5 mi
- CITY CORPORATIONPFAS · 1.5 mi
- NE YELL COUNTY WATER ASSOCPFAS · 1.5 mi
- POTTSVILLE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- TYSON FOODS - POTTSVILLE FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- TYSON FOODS - POTTSVILLE FEED MILLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- TYSON FOODS INC. TYSON TRANSPORTATION OFFICEBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- TYSON FOODS, INC. TVDC WESTToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pottsville'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 Pottsville.
Total Sites
731
within ~10 miles of Pottsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
35 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pottsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pottsville
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pottsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pottsville — Nitrate (432 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Pottsville
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 Pottsville average
Your land is one point inside Pottsville
Everything above resolves to Pottsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Pottsville Average
Pottsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pottsville
- ●One soil character for all of Pottsville
- ●Frost dates read at Pottsville's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pottsville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pottsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pottsville, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pottsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pottsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pottsville average
How we know this about Pottsville
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 Pottsville’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 Pottsville
When does frost risk typically end in Pottsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pottsville 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 Pottsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pottsville typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pottsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pottsville sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 2, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pottsville?
The federal record around Pottsville is a meaningful one — 731 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (432), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Pottsville?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pottsville's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pottsville'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 Pottsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pottsville's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,660 acres it covers and 731 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pottsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pottsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 16 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 731 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pottsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pottsville's boundary and the 8,660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pottsville's own centroid, the Arkansas ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pottsville's 8,660 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pope County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pope 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 Pope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pottsville's 8,660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pottsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Pottsville-wide figureread your own land →
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