Chickasaw County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Chickasaw County lies within the Black Belt — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Chickasaw County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chickasaw County — the short answer
Chickasaw County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 321K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 321K 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 8a is Chickasaw County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chickasaw County's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Chickasaw County
Across a year, Chickasaw County accumulates about 4,987 growing degree days above 50°F, about 411 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 17 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 1,530 hours below 45°F, 338 more 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 Chickasaw County
Across Chickasaw County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Kipling, Adaton, and Falkner are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
33%
Hydric soils
14%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Chickasaw County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Chickasaw County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 53% drains differently: 22% well drained, 18% moderately well drained.
Kipling is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Adaton (8%) and Falkner (8%).
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 Chickasaw County
Each reading below is measured for Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
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
MeasuredTopsoil across Chickasaw County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, 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
MeasuredChickasaw County runs about 245 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
MeasuredChickasaw County 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 Chickasaw County is in
Chickasaw County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Chickasaw County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Chickasaw County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 245-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 Chickasaw County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What gets applied to farmland in Chickasaw County
USGS estimates 179,658 lb of Glyphosate on Chickasaw County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (29,579 lb) and 2,4-d (25,905 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 Chickasaw County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Chickasaw County — 130 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County
Closest first, across Chickasaw County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pop's Quick MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Clemons GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Sprint Mart #4146Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- WALMART #411Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING COMPANY, HOUSTONBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- GRIFFIN MOTORS INCBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- Houston Deli MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 017F0018 CHICKASAWNitrate · 3.6 mi
- North Pak-a-PokUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 017F0017 CHICKASAWNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 017F0016 CHICKASAWNitrate · 3.7 mi
- Country Qwik # 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County.
Total Sites
130
across Chickasaw County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Chickasaw County
Severity Distribution
across Chickasaw County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chickasaw County, two things run higher than the national average across Chickasaw County — Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County average
Your land is one point inside Chickasaw County
Everything above resolves to Chickasaw County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 321K 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 Chickasaw County Average
Chickasaw County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Chickasaw County
- ●One soil character for all of Chickasaw County
- ●Frost dates read at Chickasaw County's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chickasaw County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Chickasaw County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chickasaw County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chickasaw County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chickasaw County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chickasaw County average
How we know this about Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Chickasaw County
When does frost risk typically end in Chickasaw County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chickasaw County typically lands around Mar 13, 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 Apr 3.
How long is the growing season in Chickasaw County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chickasaw County sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 30, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chickasaw County?
The federal record around Chickasaw County shows 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 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 Chickasaw County's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Chickasaw County's own scale — its own ~245-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 130 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chickasaw County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chickasaw County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Chickasaw CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 130 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Chickasaw County's boundary and the 321,140 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chickasaw County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County — the ~245 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 Chickasaw County's 321,140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 130 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 Chickasaw Countyread your own land →