Grenada County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Grenada County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Grenada 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 Grenada County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grenada County — the short answer
Grenada County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 270K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 270K 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 Grenada County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grenada County's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Grenada County
Across a year, Grenada County accumulates about 5,053 growing degree days above 50°F, about 345 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 20 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 1,507 hours below 45°F, 315 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 Grenada County
Across Grenada County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Falaya, Memphis, and Waverly are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
13%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Grenada County
The USDA soil survey maps 25% of Grenada County as well drained — but another 52% drains differently: 22% moderately well drained, 21% somewhat poorly drained.
Falaya is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Memphis (11%) and Waverly (9%).
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 Grenada County
Each reading below is measured for Grenada 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 Grenada County are well drained, in hydrologic group B/D — 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 Grenada 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 18% of Grenada County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGrenada County 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
The kind of country Grenada County is in
Grenada County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (49%), Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (38%) and Mississippi Alluvial Plain (13%). 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 Grenada County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Grenada County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 255-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 Grenada 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 Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What gets applied to farmland in Grenada County
USGS estimates 42,917 lb of Glyphosate on Grenada County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (15,239 lb) and Acephate (11,226 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 Grenada County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Grenada County — 219 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Grenada County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Grenada County
Closest first, across Grenada County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ShotsUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- A-1 Truck & AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- TRULITE GLASS AND ALUMINUM SOLUTIONSBrownfields · 550 ft
- TRULITE GLASS AND ALUMINUM SOLUTIONSToxics Release Inventory · 550 ft
- Jlg ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Grenada County District 1Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Consolidated Tire ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Hhb 631 Fa BdeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Ms State Highway Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WALGREENS #12269Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Jerry's TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Pennaco Hosiery IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grenada 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 Grenada County.
Sources Checked
across Grenada County
Severity Distribution
across Grenada County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grenada County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 18 sites across Grenada County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Grenada 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 Grenada County average
Your land is one point inside Grenada County
Everything above resolves to Grenada County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 270K 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 Grenada County Average
Grenada County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Grenada County
- ●One soil character for all of Grenada County
- ●Frost dates read at Grenada County's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grenada County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Grenada County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grenada County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grenada County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grenada County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grenada County average
How we know this about Grenada 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 Grenada County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Grenada County
When does frost risk typically end in Grenada County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grenada County typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Grenada County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grenada County sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 3, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grenada County?
The federal record around Grenada County is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), 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.
Everything above is measured at Grenada County's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grenada 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 Grenada County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Grenada County's own scale — its own ~255-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 219 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grenada County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grenada County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Grenada CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 219 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Grenada County's boundary and the 270,152 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 3 ecoregions Grenada County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Grenada 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 Grenada County — the ~255 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 Grenada County's 270,152 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 219 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 Grenada Countyread your own land →