Arcola, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arcola, 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 Arcola 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 Arcola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arcola — the short answer
Arcola, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 140 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 140 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 Washington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Arcola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arcola's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arcola
Each reading below is measured for Arcola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsArcola runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Washington County, the closest normal to Arcola) — 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
MeasuredArcola sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Arcola is in
Arcola sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arcola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Arcola
Every plant below cleared Arcola's own zone 8b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arcola?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Arcola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arcola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ZipQuickUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Arcola 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- 151L0027 WASHINGTONNitrate · 0.5 mi
- 151J0006 WASHINGTONNitrate · 1.5 mi
- 151H0101 WASHINGTONNitrate · 2.3 mi
- Blake's 76Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 151M0023 WASHINGTONNitrate · 3.8 mi
- 151L0020 WASHINGTONNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 151L0031 WASHINGTONNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 151L0036 WASHINGTONNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 151L0030 WASHINGTONNitrate · 4.0 mi
- Trail Lake StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arcola'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 Arcola.
Total Sites
185
within ~10 miles of Arcola
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arcola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arcola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arcola, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 116 sites within ~10 miles of Arcola. 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 Arcola
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 Arcola average
Your land is one point inside Arcola
Everything above resolves to Arcola as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 140 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Washington 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 Arcola Average
Arcola Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Arcola
- ●One soil character for all of Arcola
- ●Frost dates read at Arcola's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arcola's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arcola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arcola, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arcola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arcola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arcola average
How we know this about Arcola
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 Washington 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 Arcola
When does frost risk typically end in Arcola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arcola typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Arcola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arcola typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arcola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arcola sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 19, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arcola?
The federal record around Arcola shows 185 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (116), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Arcola?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arcola's scale — its 8b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arcola'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 Arcola’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Arcola's own scale — the 140 acres it covers and 185 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arcola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 185 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arcola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arcola's boundary and the 140 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arcola's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Arcola has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Washington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arcola's 140 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arcola's 140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arcola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 140 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Arcola-wide figureread your own land →
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