Sulphur Springs, Arkansas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sulphur Springs, 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 Sulphur Springs 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 Sulphur Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sulphur Springs — the short answer
Sulphur Springs, Arkansas: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 647 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 647 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 7a is Sulphur Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sulphur Springs's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sulphur Springs
Each reading below is measured for Sulphur Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSulphur Springs runs about 229 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
MeasuredSulphur Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Sulphur Springs is in
Sulphur Springs sits in the Ozark Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sulphur Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Sulphur Springs
Every plant below cleared Sulphur Springs's own zone 7a and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sulphur Springs?
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 Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Sulphur Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sulphur Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21N33W23ACA1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- SHILOH TRUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ADVANTAGE METALS RECYCLING, LLC - NOELBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- STATE LINE LIQUOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GANN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- C & C BARGAIN CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- GRAVETTE WATERWORKSPFAS · 1.9 mi
- BELLA VISTA POAPFAS · 1.9 mi
- SIBLEY ENGINEERINGBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- GRACO CORPBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- OLEN LEONARD FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- GRAVETTE SHELLING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sulphur Springs'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 Sulphur Springs.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Sulphur Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sulphur Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sulphur Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sulphur Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sulphur Springs — CAFO (10 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sulphur Springs
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 Sulphur Springs average
Your land is one point inside Sulphur Springs
Everything above resolves to Sulphur Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 647 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 Sulphur Springs Average
Sulphur Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sulphur Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Sulphur Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Sulphur Springs's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sulphur Springs's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sulphur Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sulphur Springs, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sulphur Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sulphur Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sulphur Springs average
How we know this about Sulphur Springs
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 Sulphur Springs’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 Sulphur Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Sulphur Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sulphur Springs typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Sulphur Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sulphur Springs typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sulphur Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sulphur Springs sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 26, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sulphur Springs?
The federal record around Sulphur Springs shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Nitrate 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 Sulphur Springs?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sulphur Springs's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sulphur Springs'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 Sulphur Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sulphur Springs's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 647 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sulphur Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sulphur Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 9 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sulphur Springs, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sulphur Springs's boundary and the 647 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sulphur Springs's own centroid, the Ozark HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sulphur Springs's 647 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sulphur Springs's 647 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sulphur Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 647 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Sulphur Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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