Mississippi spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-9b, with a growing season of about 273 frost-free days — growing weather most of the year, with mild winters opening seasons colder regions never see.
Behind the zone label sits the real climate engine: 50-65 inches of annual rainfall, a median of roughly 5,404 growing-degree days (base 50°F), and about 1,160 winter chill hours for tree fruit. Expect loess, alluvial clay, sandy loam, and muck underfoot; what unites them is that their drainage, good or poor, sets the ceiling on most crops. Mississippi splits into distinct growing country: Mississippi Delta, Gulf Coast, and Black Belt, each keeping its own frost calendar. Well-matched crops include pecan, okra, muscadine grape, and magnolia, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded inUSDA PHZM•NOAA Climate Normals•USDA NRCS SSURGO•GDD (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•Chill hours (PRISM 1991-2020 normals)•USDA hardiness sub-region map•EPA FRS•USDA PLANTS•Growable Ground suitability scoring
Mississippi spans zones 7b-9b, but your yard sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Mississippi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Distinct growing regions within Mississippi — each has its own zones, soils, and signature crops.
Mississippi: USDA zones 7b-9b, 232–309 frost-free days depending on the county, 82 counties.
The middle half of this state’s counties. Tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks past the last hard freeze. The shortest-season figure is Mississippi's own county record — Tishomingo County's measured 28°F normal, not a modeled floor.
Zone 7b-9b is Mississippi's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mississippi's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One answer for Mississippi averages 82 counties whose growing seasons are 77 days apart — from 232 frost-free days in Tishomingo County to 309 in Harrison County. That is the same state, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your county sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 82 counties runs 262–286 days, with a median of 272 days — a 77-day span end to end.
Measured across 82 counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze. A county with no record of its own is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the state. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
The middle half of Mississippi runs 262–286 frost-free days, and 37 of its 82 counties sit outside that — 20 on the short side, 17 on the long. A statewide planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 262 frost-free days
20 counties
3 of 20 shown
The end of the state that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
262–286 frost-free days
45 counties
0 of 45 shown
The middle half of the state, and the part a single statewide date describes well.
Over 286 frost-free days
17 counties
3 of 17 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its own 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020, county 28°F killing freeze), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a yard within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
The soil types that dominate Mississippi — how each drains decides more about crop success than almost anything else. Tap any soil to learn what it is and how to work with it. Each photo is a representative profile of that soil type; the named series is where it was documented, which is often another state.
Drainage
Good — it absorbs rain readily and holds it in reach of roots — but it erodes faster than any other soil when left bare on a slope.
What thrives
Nearly everything: corn, small grains, and the full vegetable garden thrive in loess country, which is exactly why so much of it is farmed.
Clay laid down by rivers — the finest sediment, carried farthest and dropped last where floodwater slowed and spread. Valley floors and old floodplains carry it in deep, nutrient-rich beds.
Drainage
Slow, and often sitting over a shallow water table in low-lying valley positions — the flip side of all that fertility.
What thrives
Vigorous, moisture-loving crops: corn, squash, brassicas, celery, and cane fruit all pull hard from alluvial clay. Willows and many natives thrive where it stays damp.
Drainage
Fast. The sand fraction opens the soil up, so water moves through the root zone quickly and the surface rarely stays soggy. The trade is that nutrients ride out with the water.
What thrives
Root crops love it — carrots, potatoes, radishes, and onions size up cleanly in ground they can push through. Melons, sweet potatoes, asparagus, and most herbs appreciate the warmth and the drainage.
Drainage
It holds water like a sponge by nature; farmed muck is managed with ditches and water control, and it can dry, shrink, and even blow when left bare.
What thrives
Muck is celebrated vegetable ground — onions, celery, carrots, lettuce, and greens grow to prize quality in it. Its loose, black tilth is what root and leaf crops dream of.
Soil data: USDA NRCS SSURGO · Soil types explained
Plants well-suited to Mississippi's climate, soils, and growing season — each links to its full growing profile.
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Across Mississippi, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Feb 25, with the middle half of counties between Feb 17 and Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 21 and Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
The plants Mississippi put its name on — cultural emblems, not growing recommendations.
Magnolia
Magnolia
Designated 1900.
Magnolia grandiflora
Designated 1952. In our plant library — see its full growing profile.
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in Mississippi — a real per-state range, not just a zone match. Ordered by how closely each plant’s published hardiness range matches Mississippi’s zones 7b-9b, so this is a shortlist by climate fit, not a ranking of which plants matter most here. Presence is statewide, so a plant may still be uncommon in your specific county; your state’s Cooperative Extension or a native-plant society is the local authority.
US-native plants whose hardiness range overlaps Mississippi’s USDA zones 7b-9b but which USDA PLANTS doesn’t map to a single state range here. Zone overlap is a starting filter, not a range map.
What an experienced grower plans around here — each one has a move.
Extreme summer heat and humidity
Run the garden on the generous spring and fall windows — and let summer belong to okra, peas, and sweet potatoes.
Heavy alluvial clay in the Delta region
Delta clay is rich but slow to drain — raised rows get roots above the wet while keeping that fertility in reach.
Frequent severe storms and flooding
Site beds on the high ground, mound the rows, and keep water moving — drainage planning is storm insurance.
For cultivar selection, pest pressure, and planting-time guidance specific to Mississippi, the Mississippi State University Extension Service is the authoritative local source.
Safe to Grow Here?What the federal record shows across Mississippi — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Mississippi — 20,263 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 118 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Mississippi carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Severity Distribution
across Mississippi
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mississippi, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 211 sites across Mississippi. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Everything above resolves to Mississippi as a whole — a state whose own counties record seasons 77 days apart, and hardiness across zones 7b-9b. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 state 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 statewide average.
State averages sketch the shape. Your soil, sun exposure, drainage, and microclimate decide what actually takes. Pull a site-specific report for your exact parcel.
Enter your address. We read your soil, sun, drainage, and frost dates, then score 1,086 plants against the real conditions on your land.
Three things about your lot that Mississippi averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mississippi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mississippi average
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read per county and aggregated to the state band; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each county’s own record; rainfall from NOAA Climate Normals; soils from USDA NRCS SSURGO; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above. Where a county carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Mississippi spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-9b — which is to say winter's coldest night runs from about 5°F to 30°F depending where in Mississippi you are, averaged over 1991–2020 (USDA PHZM 2023).
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Across Mississippi, cool-season planting typically opens about four weeks before the local last hard freeze — county medians put that freeze near Feb 25, with the middle half of counties between Feb 17 and Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender transplants wait two to three weeks past it, and fall planting counts back from first freezes mostly between Nov 21 and Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Across Mississippi, the middle half of counties see their last hard freeze (28°F) between about Feb 17 and Mar 3, with a county median near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). 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 18.
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, growing seasons across Mississippi's counties mostly run about 262 to 286 days, with a county median near 273 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals). Tender crops get a somewhat shorter practical window, since lighter frosts reach a few weeks past the hard-freeze dates on both ends.
Mississippi's zones 7b-9b support a wide range — strong performers include Pecan, Okra, Muscadine Grape, Magnolia, and Sweet Potato. What actually takes on any one site comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage, and we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
Officially, Mississippi spans USDA zones 7b-9b (USDA PHZM 2023) — but a zone is a 30-year average of winter's coldest night across an area, and it can't see any one yard. A south-facing slope, a tree line, or a low frost pocket can shift a single site by half a zone either way, which is why neighboring gardeners often quote different numbers. We read the conditions at your exact address — soil, sun, slope, and frost — and score 1,086 plants against what's actually there.
The federal record across Mississippi runs heavier than most — 20,263 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (11,235) — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Start with three facts. Mississippi spans USDA zones 7b-9b, which sets what survives winter; last hard freezes range from about Feb 17 to Mar 3 across its counties (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and 20,263 documented sites sit on the federal record here, so a soil test before food beds is the smart first step. From there, matching plants to your actual soil and sun is the fun part.
Everything above is measured at Mississippi's scale — its 7b-9b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mississippi's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
6 of the readings below were taken at Mississippi's own scale — the full zone 7b-9b span inside its borders, the 4 soil types that dominate its ground and 20,263 documented sites on its federal record; anything it cannot resolve at this scale is named below.
Measured here
What this page can’t tell you
Explore growing conditions by county — each has its own zone range and land area.
Explore growing conditions by city or town in Mississippi.
Mississippi shares its dominant growing region with these states — a useful comparison if you're weighing where a crop will behave the same way.
