Amite County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Amite County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Amite County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Amite County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Amite County — the short answer
Amite County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 467K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 467K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 8b is Amite County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Amite County's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Amite County
Across a year, Amite County accumulates about 5,817 growing degree days above 50°F, about 419 more than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 65 of Mississippi’s 82 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 809 hours below 45°F, 383 fewer than the Mississippi middle of 1,192. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Amite County
Across Amite County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Providence, Smithdale, and Ora are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
43%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Amite County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Amite County as moderately well drained — but another 56% drains differently: 37% well drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Providence is the most extensive named soil at 33% of mapped acres, then Smithdale (20%) and Ora (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Amite County
Each reading below is measured for Amite County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Amite County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Amite County runs about pH 5.0–5.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAmite County runs about 287 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredAmite County 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 Amite County is in
Amite County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (89%) and Southeastern Plains (11%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Amite County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Amite County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 287-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile.
Is it too late to plant in Amite County?
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 Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Amite County
USGS estimates 5,589 lb of Glyphosate on Amite County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (4,765 lb) and Triclopyr (942 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Amite County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Amite County — 90 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Amite County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Amite County
Closest first, across Amite County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Milford JacksonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fenn's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AIR CRUISERS COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- AIR CRUISERS COMPANYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- AMITE LUMBER COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- BlueSky #801Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Amite County Copperative AalUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Amite County Bus LotUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Amite County Sheriff's DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Amite County CourthouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Amite County High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 005H0002 AMITENitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Amite County'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 Amite County.
Total Sites
90
across Amite County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Amite County
Severity Distribution
across Amite County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Amite County, two things run higher than the national average across Amite County — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (57 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Amite County
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 Amite County average
Your land is one point inside Amite County
Everything above resolves to Amite County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 467K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Amite County Average
Amite County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Amite County
- ●One soil character for all of Amite County
- ●Frost dates read at Amite County's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Amite County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Amite County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Amite County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Amite County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Amite County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Amite County average
How we know this about Amite County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Amite County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Amite County
When does frost risk typically end in Amite County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Amite County typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
How long is the growing season in Amite County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Amite County sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 17, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Amite County?
The federal record around Amite County shows 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Amite County's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Amite County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Mississippi's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Amite County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Amite County's own scale — its own ~287-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 90 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Amite County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Amite County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~287-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Amite CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 90 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Amite County's boundary and the 467,264 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Amite County spans, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Amite County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Amite County — the ~287 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Amite County's 467,264 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 90 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Amite Countyread your own land →