Claiborne County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Claiborne County lies within the Loess Bluffs / Natchez District — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Claiborne County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Claiborne 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 Claiborne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Claiborne County — the short answer
Claiborne County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 312K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 312K 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 Claiborne County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Claiborne County's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Claiborne County
Across a year, Claiborne County accumulates about 5,742 growing degree days above 50°F, about 344 more than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 61 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 912 hours below 45°F, 280 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 Claiborne County
Across Claiborne County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Memphis, Natchez, and Falaya are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
14%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Claiborne County
The USDA soil survey maps 44% of Claiborne County as well drained — but another 36% drains differently: 19% moderately well drained, 14% somewhat poorly drained.
Memphis is the most extensive named soil at 43% of mapped acres, then Natchez (14%) and Falaya (10%).
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 Claiborne County
Each reading below is measured for Claiborne 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 Claiborne County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Claiborne County runs about pH 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
MeasuredClaiborne County runs about 278 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
MeasuredClaiborne 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 Claiborne County is in
Claiborne County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (89%) and Mississippi Alluvial Plain (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 Claiborne County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Claiborne County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 278-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 Claiborne County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What gets applied to farmland in Claiborne County
USGS estimates 14,269 lb of Glyphosate on Claiborne County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (6,517 lb) and Metolachlor-s (6,060 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 Claiborne County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Claiborne County — 73 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Claiborne 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 Claiborne County
Closest first, across Claiborne County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Port Gibson/claiborne County Civil DefenseUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Jerry's Friendly MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Bst Port Gibson Radio Tr 72652Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Ride 16Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Farmers Cooperative AalUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Country Corner GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Five Star Port GibsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- H & G Food RetailUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 021N0001 CLAIBORNENitrate · 3.7 mi
- Shop A Minit Jr #2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Crossroads GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- American Paper Tube CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Claiborne 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 Claiborne County.
Total Sites
73
across Claiborne County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Claiborne County
Severity Distribution
across Claiborne County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Claiborne County, two things run higher than the national average across Claiborne County — 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 Claiborne 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 Claiborne County average
Your land is one point inside Claiborne County
Everything above resolves to Claiborne County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 312K 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 Claiborne County Average
Claiborne County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Claiborne County
- ●One soil character for all of Claiborne County
- ●Frost dates read at Claiborne County's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Claiborne County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Claiborne County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Claiborne County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Claiborne County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Claiborne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Claiborne County average
How we know this about Claiborne 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 Claiborne County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Claiborne County
When does frost risk typically end in Claiborne County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Claiborne County typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Claiborne County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Claiborne County sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 11, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Claiborne County?
The federal record around Claiborne County shows 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), 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 Claiborne County's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Claiborne 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 Claiborne County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Claiborne County's own scale — its own ~278-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 73 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Claiborne County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Claiborne County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~278-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Claiborne CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 73 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
- Claiborne County's boundary and the 311,946 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Claiborne County spans, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Claiborne 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 Claiborne County — the ~278 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 Claiborne County's 311,946 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 73 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 Claiborne Countyread your own land →