Itawamba County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Itawamba County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Itawamba 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 Itawamba County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Itawamba County — the short answer
Itawamba County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 341K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 341K 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 Itawamba County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Itawamba County's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Itawamba County
Across a year, Itawamba County accumulates about 4,905 growing degree days above 50°F, about 493 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 9 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 1,600 hours below 45°F, 408 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 Itawamba County
Across Itawamba County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Smithdale, Mantachie, and Luverne are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Itawamba County
The USDA soil survey maps 63% of Itawamba County as well drained — but another 36% drains differently: 18% somewhat poorly drained, 17% moderately well drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 40% of mapped acres, then Mantachie (19%) and Luverne (13%).
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 Itawamba County
Each reading below is measured for Itawamba 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 Itawamba 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 Itawamba County runs about pH 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
MeasuredItawamba County runs about 251 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
MeasuredItawamba 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 Itawamba County is in
Itawamba 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 Itawamba County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Itawamba County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 251-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 Itawamba County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Itawamba County
USGS estimates 21,683 lb of Glyphosate on Itawamba County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (4,756 lb) and Dimethenamid-p (3,864 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 Itawamba County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Itawamba County — 160 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Itawamba 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 Itawamba County
Closest first, across Itawamba County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dulaney's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Fulton ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Fulton Battery ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- East Fulton Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 057G0053 ITAWAMBANitrate · 1.7 mi
- Peppertown GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Fulton TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Larry J Orear Texaco StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Kwik SakUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- A & S Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Luther GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- O Z Cummings GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Itawamba 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 Itawamba County.
Total Sites
160
across Itawamba County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Itawamba County
Severity Distribution
across Itawamba County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Itawamba County, two things run higher than the national average across Itawamba County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Itawamba 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 Itawamba County average
Your land is one point inside Itawamba County
Everything above resolves to Itawamba County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 341K 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 Itawamba County Average
Itawamba County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Itawamba County
- ●One soil character for all of Itawamba County
- ●Frost dates read at Itawamba County's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Itawamba County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Itawamba County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Itawamba County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Itawamba County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Itawamba County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Itawamba County average
How we know this about Itawamba 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 Itawamba County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Itawamba County
When does frost risk typically end in Itawamba County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Itawamba County typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Itawamba County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Itawamba County sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 4, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Itawamba County?
The federal record around Itawamba County shows 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Itawamba County's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Itawamba 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 Itawamba County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Itawamba County's own scale — its own ~251-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 160 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Itawamba County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Itawamba County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Itawamba CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 160 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Itawamba County's boundary and the 340,989 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Itawamba County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Itawamba 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 Itawamba County — the ~251 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 Itawamba County's 340,989 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 160 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 Itawamba Countyread your own land →