Coldwater, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Coldwater, 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 Coldwater 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 Coldwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coldwater — the short answer
Coldwater, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Coldwater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coldwater's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coldwater
Each reading below is measured for Coldwater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColdwater runs about 255 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredColdwater 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 Coldwater is in
Coldwater sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coldwater's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tate County.
What Grows in Coldwater
Every plant below cleared Coldwater's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coldwater?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Coldwater
Survey cells within 31 miles of Coldwater checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 199 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Coldwater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coldwater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Johnson BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Durley H BrattonUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- 137B0002 TATENitrate · 700 ft
- Coldwater Exxon & Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Town Of ColdwaterUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Coldwater Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- INNOCOR FOAM TECHNOLOGIES LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- INNOCOR FOAM TECHNOLOGIES LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Coldwater Gin CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Hudson Lumber CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Mpi IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Flash Market 86Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coldwater'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 Coldwater.
Total Sites
169
within ~10 miles of Coldwater
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coldwater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coldwater
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coldwater, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Coldwater — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Coldwater
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 Coldwater average
Your land is one point inside Coldwater
Everything above resolves to Coldwater as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Coldwater Average
Coldwater Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Coldwater
- ●One soil character for all of Coldwater
- ●Frost dates read at Coldwater's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coldwater's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coldwater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coldwater, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coldwater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coldwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coldwater average
How we know this about Coldwater
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 Coldwater’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 Coldwater
When does frost risk typically end in Coldwater?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coldwater typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Coldwater?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coldwater typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coldwater?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coldwater sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 2, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coldwater?
The federal record around Coldwater is a meaningful one — 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Coldwater?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coldwater's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coldwater'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 Coldwater’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Coldwater's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,520 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coldwater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coldwater's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 16 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coldwater, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coldwater's boundary and the 1,520 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coldwater's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Coldwater checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coldwater's 1,520 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tate County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tate 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 Tate County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coldwater's 1,520 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coldwater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,520 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Coldwater-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiColdwater sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides