Jasper 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Jasper County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Jasper 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 Jasper County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jasper County — the short answer
Jasper County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 433K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 433K 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 Jasper County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jasper County's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Jasper County
Across a year, Jasper County accumulates about 5,378 growing degree days above 50°F, about 20 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 39 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 1,160 hours below 45°F, 32 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 Jasper County
Across Jasper County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Sweatman, Smithdale, and Vaiden are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Jasper County
The USDA soil survey maps 46% of Jasper County as well drained — but another 53% drains differently: 26% moderately well drained, 21% somewhat poorly drained.
Sweatman is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Smithdale (10%) and Vaiden (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 Jasper County
Each reading below is measured for Jasper 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 Jasper County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Jasper 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
Season length
MeasuredJasper County runs about 274 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
MeasuredJasper 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 Jasper County is in
Jasper 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 Jasper County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Jasper County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 274-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 Jasper County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Jasper County
USGS estimates 4,381 lb of 2,4-d on Jasper County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Triclopyr (1,965 lb) and Dicamba (746 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 Jasper County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Jasper County — 131 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Jasper 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 Jasper County
Closest first, across Jasper County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLONIAL PIPELINE COMPANY, PAULDINGBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- COOPERATIVE ENERGY, PAULDING PEAKING STATIONBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Hudson WindhamUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Kevin's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- REAGAN EQUIPMENT COMPANYBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- M & G GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Archie Craft Paulding GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- R H Read GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Bst Paulding Radio Tower 71696Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Bay Springs StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Stout's StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- 061G0001 JASPERNitrate · 8.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jasper 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 Jasper County.
Total Sites
131
across Jasper County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Jasper County
Severity Distribution
across Jasper County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jasper County, two things run higher than the national average across Jasper County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Jasper 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 Jasper County average
Your land is one point inside Jasper County
Everything above resolves to Jasper County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 433K 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 Jasper County Average
Jasper County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Jasper County
- ●One soil character for all of Jasper County
- ●Frost dates read at Jasper County's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jasper County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Jasper County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jasper County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jasper County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jasper County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jasper County average
How we know this about Jasper 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 Jasper County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Jasper County
When does frost risk typically end in Jasper County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jasper County typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
How long is the growing season in Jasper County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jasper County sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 12, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jasper County?
The federal record around Jasper County is a meaningful one — 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Jasper County's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jasper 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 Jasper County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Jasper County's own scale — its own ~274-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 131 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jasper County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jasper County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~274-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Jasper CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 131 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Jasper County's boundary and the 432,838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Jasper County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Jasper 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 Jasper County — the ~274 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 Jasper County's 432,838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 131 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 Jasper Countyread your own land →