Hancock County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Hancock County lies within the Gulf Coast — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hancock County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hancock 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 Hancock County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hancock County — the short answer
Hancock County, Mississippi: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 303K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 303K 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 9a is Hancock County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hancock County's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hancock County
Across a year, Hancock County accumulates about 6,330 growing degree days above 50°F, about 932 more than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 79 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 531 hours below 45°F, 661 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 Hancock County
Across Hancock County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Poarch, Smithton, and Atmore are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
33%
Hydric soils
45%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hancock County
The USDA soil survey maps 34% of Hancock County as poorly drained — but another 64% drains differently: 25% well drained, 20% moderately well drained.
Poarch is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Smithton (15%) and Atmore (12%).
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 Hancock County
Each reading below is measured for Hancock 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 Hancock County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/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 Hancock County runs about pH 4.6–5.0, 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
MeasuredHancock County runs about 304 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
MeasuredHancock County sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Hancock County is in
Hancock County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southern Coastal Plain (60%) and Southeastern Plains (40%). 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 Hancock County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hancock County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 304-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 Hancock 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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Hancock County
- monarch butterfly5 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hancock County
USGS estimates 1,926 lb of 2,4-d on Hancock County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,077 lb) and Triclopyr (841 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 Hancock County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hancock County — 267 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). 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 Hancock 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 Hancock County
Closest first, across Hancock County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INGRAM INDUSTRIESSuperfund · 1.9 mi
- PROJECT HANGAR INC, THEBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Stennis International AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Coastal Hardward & Rental CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HANCOCK COUNTY MERCURY RELEASESuperfund · 2.6 mi
- KILN TIRE AND WRECKERBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- KILN AUTO BODY AND PAINT INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- LONNIES AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- Keith's #181Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GULF SOUTH PIPELINE COMPANY LLC, KILN COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- George Curet SrUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Old RoosterUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hancock 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 Hancock County.
Total Sites
267
across Hancock County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Hancock County
Severity Distribution
across Hancock County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hancock County, two things run higher than the national average across Hancock County — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (6 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hancock 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 Hancock County average
Your land is one point inside Hancock County
Everything above resolves to Hancock County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 303K 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 Hancock County Average
Hancock County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Hancock County
- ●One soil character for all of Hancock County
- ●Frost dates read at Hancock County's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hancock County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hancock County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hancock County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hancock County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hancock County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hancock County average
How we know this about Hancock 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 Hancock County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hancock County
When does frost risk typically end in Hancock County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hancock County typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
How long is the growing season in Hancock County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hancock County sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 25, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hancock County?
The federal record around Hancock County is a meaningful one — 267 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Superfund record about 1.9 miles 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 Hancock County's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hancock 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 Hancock County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hancock County's own scale — its own ~304-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 267 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hancock County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hancock County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~304-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hancock CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 267 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Superfund record about 1.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hancock County's boundary and the 303,338 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hancock County spans, Southern Coastal Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hancock County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hancock 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 Hancock County — the ~304 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 Hancock County's 303,338 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 267 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 Hancock Countyread your own land →