The Mississippi Delta spans USDA hardiness zones 7a-10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The flat, deep, dark alluvial bottomland of the lower Mississippi River — extraordinarily fertile cotton, soybean, rice, and sweet-potato ground. Well-matched crops include okra, tomato, sweet potato, and live oak, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
The Mississippi Delta spans Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee. Its footprint follows the EPA Level III ecoregion boundary; the counties linked below are representative of the region, not an exhaustive list.
Your yard isn't all of the Mississippi Delta.
The Mississippi Delta spans USDA zones 7a-10a, but your parcel 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 Delta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Mississippi Delta — the short answer
The Mississippi Delta: USDA zones 7a-10a, 239–365 frost-free days depending where in it you stand, across 5 states.
- USDA zones
- 7a-10a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Shortest season here
- 239 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020 — Scott County
- Counties
- 62
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- EPA ecoregion
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. The season figure is this region's own record, measured across its 62 member counties, not a state or national average.
Hardiness Zone Range
The Mississippi Delta is not one growing season
One answer for the Mississippi Delta averages 62 counties whose growing seasons are 126 days apart — from 239 frost-free days in Scott County to 365 in Plaquemines County. That is the same region, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your land sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 62 counties runs 270–303 days, with a median of 284 days — a 126-day span end to end.
Measured across 62 member counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020. A member with no own record is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the region. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
Where the line runs inside the Mississippi Delta
The middle half of the Mississippi Delta runs 270–303 frost-free days, and 31 of its 62 counties sit outside that — 16 on the short side, 15 on the long. A regional planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 270 frost-free days
16 counties
- Scott County · 239 days
- Mississippi County · 240 days
- Butler County · 243 days
3 of 16 shown
The end of the region that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
270–303 frost-free days
31 counties
0 of 31 shown
The middle half of the region, and the part a single regional season describes well.
Over 303 frost-free days
15 counties
- Plaquemines County · 365 days
- St. Charles County · 337 days
- Orleans County · 336 days
3 of 15 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), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a site within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
What Grows in the Mississippi Delta
All 3 of the plants below that publish a season requirement clear even Scott County’s 239 frost-free days — so on season alone, this grid works at both ends of the region. The 126-day spread still decides how far past this list you can push, and how early you can start.
Plants matched to the Mississippi Delta's USDA zones 7a-10a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Mississippi Delta
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in all 5 states this region crosses, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Mississippi Delta’s USDA zones 7a-10a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Mississippi Delta
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across 62 member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Alfisols, at 34% of mapped acres, followed by Vertisols (26%), Inceptisols (18%) and Entisols (10%). Seven soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Sharkey, Alligator, and Commerce.
40% of those acres are poorly drained, and another 23% somewhat poorly drained, 11% very poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 4.8–7.3 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 42% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Topsoil pH
4.8–7.3
Hydric soils
59%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Plaquemines County holds the most wetland ground here, at 96% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Mississippi Delta
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Mississippi Delta. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records40% of the mapped acres across the Mississippi Delta are poorly drained — ground that sheds water slowly. That is area-weighted across all 62 of its mapped counties.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Mississippi Delta runs pH 4.8–7.3 — near neutral in 35 of its 62 counties.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Mississippi Delta — and how to grow with it.
Across the Mississippi Delta's 62 counties the federal record holds 26,365 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (10,420), Brownfields (8,822) and Nitrate (5,934). The heaviest single county is Jefferson County, with 3,229.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Mississippi Delta to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 62 counties in the Mississippi Delta
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Mississippi Delta
Everything above resolves to the Mississippi Delta as a whole — a footprint whose own counties record seasons 126 days apart, and hardiness across zones 7a-10a. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Mississippi Delta Average
Mississippi Delta Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a-10a, averaged across Mississippi Delta
- ●One soil character for all of Mississippi Delta
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mississippi Delta's 7a-10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Mississippi Delta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Mississippi Delta — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mississippi Delta averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Mississippi Delta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mississippi Delta average
How we know this about the Mississippi Delta
The boundary: an EPA Level III ecoregion (an area sharing climate, soils, and vegetation). Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Mississippi Delta
What hardiness zone is the Mississippi Delta?
The Mississippi Delta spans USDA hardiness zones 7a-10a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Mississippi Delta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Mississippi Delta's counties mostly run 270 to 303 frost-free days, median 284 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 62 member counties). That 33-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 62 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Mississippi Delta?
Across the Mississippi Delta, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Feb 6 and Feb 28 (median Feb 19), and their first fall freeze between Nov 25 and Dec 6. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Mar 12, and elevation decides which end of a 22-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Mississippi Delta?
The Mississippi Delta's conditions suit plants such as Okra, Tomato, Sweet Potato, Live Oak, Iris, Peach. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Mississippi Delta defined?
The Mississippi Delta's footprint follows an EPA Level III ecoregion — a boundary drawn where climate, soils, and vegetation actually change rather than where a state line falls. It covers 62 counties, and the counties linked on this page are representative of the region, not an exhaustive list.
Which states does the Mississippi Delta cover?
The Mississippi Delta spans Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Appalachia, The Ozarks, Piney Woods, Blue Ridge, Gulf Coast, and Black Belt share at least one state with the Mississippi Delta. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Mississippi Delta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Mississippi Delta's own scale — the zone 7a-10a band across its footprint, a median 284-day season across its 62 counties and 26,365 documented federal contamination records across its 62 counties, 3,229 of them in Jefferson County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 7a-10a aggregated across all 62 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the EPA Level III ecoregion its 62 counties sit inside, drawn where climate and soils changeEPA Level III Ecoregions
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 62 counties run 270 to 303 frost-free days, median 284NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 26,365 documented federal contamination records across its 62 counties, 3,229 of them in Jefferson County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 34% Alfisols, topsoil pH 4.8–7.3, area-weighted across its 62 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — all 5 member states' curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 7a-10afrom Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 33-day range your ground sits at — 270 days at one extreme, 303 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Mississippi Delta
State growing guides
Representative counties
Other growing regions across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and Tennessee
The vast eastern mountain region of steep hollows, thin acidic soils, and short upland seasons — apples, brambles, ramps, and forest crops on hard-won ground. (Union of the core Appalachian ecoregions.)
A rugged Interior Highlands of cherty, rocky soils, oak-hickory forest, and clear streams — brambles, peaches, and tough hill gardens.
The sandy, acidic pine-and-hardwood forest belt of East Texas and western Louisiana — the humid South Central Plains, where a long frost-free season of roughly nine months favors heat- and acid-tolerant Southern gardens.
The high, cool, forested spine of the southern Appalachians — layered ridges, acidic mountain loams, and a short upland season suited to apples and cold-hardy crops.
The humid, near-frost-free coastal rim of the Gulf of Mexico — long seasons, sandy and alluvial soils, heat, and hurricanes shaping what thrives. (Representative coastal counties, not exhaustive.)
A crescent of dark, calcareous shrink-swell prairie clays over Cretaceous Selma chalk, sweeping from central Alabama into northeast Mississippi — famously fertile cotton, soybean, corn, and pasture ground with a long southern growing season.