Ackerman, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ackerman, 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 Ackerman 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 Ackerman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ackerman — the short answer
Ackerman, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Choctaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Choctaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Choctaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Choctaw County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Ackerman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ackerman's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ackerman
Each reading below is measured for Ackerman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAckerman runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Choctaw County, the closest normal to Ackerman) — 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
MeasuredAckerman 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 Ackerman is in
Ackerman sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ackerman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Choctaw County.
What Grows in Ackerman
Every plant below cleared Ackerman's own zone 8a and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ackerman?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Ackerman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ackerman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 4 County Electric Power AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Worrell Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Lawrence Chevron Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Henson OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Davis ArcadeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Ackerman Maintenance Hq MshdUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Highway 15 South Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Ackerman ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Choctaw County Bus StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- French Camp General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Jeff Busby Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Fair Propane Gas SystemsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ackerman'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 Ackerman.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Ackerman
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ackerman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ackerman
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ackerman, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ackerman — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ackerman
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 Ackerman average
Your land is one point inside Ackerman
Everything above resolves to Ackerman as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Choctaw County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Ackerman Average
Ackerman Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ackerman
- ●One soil character for all of Ackerman
- ●Frost dates read at Ackerman's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ackerman's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ackerman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ackerman, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ackerman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ackerman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ackerman average
How we know this about Ackerman
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 Choctaw County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Ackerman
When does frost risk typically end in Ackerman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ackerman typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Ackerman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ackerman 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 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ackerman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ackerman sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 11, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ackerman?
The federal record around Ackerman shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Ackerman?
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 Ackerman's scale — its 8a band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ackerman'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 Ackerman’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ackerman's own scale — the 1,461 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ackerman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ackerman, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ackerman's boundary and the 1,461 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ackerman's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ackerman has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Choctaw County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ackerman's 1,461 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Choctaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Choctaw County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Choctaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ackerman's 1,461 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ackerman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,461 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Ackerman-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiAckerman sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides