Tupelo, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Tupelo, 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 Tupelo 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 Tupelo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tupelo — the short answer
Tupelo, Arkansas: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 178 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 178 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 Tupelo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tupelo's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tupelo
Each reading below is measured for Tupelo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTupelo runs about 265 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
MeasuredTupelo 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 Tupelo is in
Tupelo sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tupelo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Tupelo
Every plant below cleared Tupelo's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arkansas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tupelo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Tupelo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tupelo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SATTERFIELD, EDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 09N02W05CBB1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 09N01W20BDD1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 09N01W30BAA1Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- BENEFIELD FLYING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- 08N03W26CCC1Nitrate · 7.9 mi
- 10N03W20DDB1Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 08N02W31DDD1Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- MCCRORY QUIKMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- FG EXPRESS #3Underground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- MCCRORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- MORTON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tupelo'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 Tupelo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tupelo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tupelo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tupelo, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Tupelo. 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 Tupelo
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 Tupelo average
Your land is one point inside Tupelo
Everything above resolves to Tupelo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 178 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 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 Tupelo Average
Tupelo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tupelo
- ●One soil character for all of Tupelo
- ●Frost dates read at Tupelo's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tupelo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tupelo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tupelo, Arkansas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tupelo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tupelo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tupelo average
How we know this about Tupelo
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 Tupelo’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 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 Tupelo
When does frost risk typically end in Tupelo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tupelo typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Tupelo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tupelo typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tupelo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tupelo sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 11, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tupelo?
The federal record around Tupelo is light — 39 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Tupelo?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tupelo's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tupelo'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 Tupelo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tupelo's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 178 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tupelo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tupelo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 25 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tupelo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tupelo's boundary and the 178 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tupelo's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tupelo's 178 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tupelo's 178 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tupelo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 178 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Tupelo-wide figureread your own land →
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