Neshoba County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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
Neshoba County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Neshoba 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 Neshoba County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Neshoba County — the short answer
Neshoba County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 365K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 365K 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 Neshoba County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Neshoba County's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Neshoba County
Across a year, Neshoba County accumulates about 5,368 growing degree days above 50°F, about 30 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 36 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 1,215 hours below 45°F, 23 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 Neshoba County
Across Neshoba County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Sweatman, Smithdale, and Ora 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 C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Neshoba County
The USDA soil survey maps 56% of Neshoba County as well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 22% poorly drained, 18% moderately well drained.
Sweatman is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Smithdale (14%) and Ora (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 Neshoba County
Each reading below is measured for Neshoba 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 Neshoba 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 Neshoba 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 18% of Neshoba 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
MeasuredNeshoba County runs about 268 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
The kind of country Neshoba County is in
Neshoba 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 Neshoba County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Neshoba County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 268-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 Neshoba 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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What gets applied to farmland in Neshoba County
USGS estimates 13,883 lb of 2,4-d on Neshoba County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (4,170 lb) and Atrazine (1,913 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 Neshoba County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Neshoba County — 193 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Neshoba 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 Neshoba County
Closest first, across Neshoba County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Boatner's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WEYERHAEUSER NR CO - PHILADELPHIA LUMBERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WEYERHAEUSER NR CO - PHILADELPHIA LUMBERToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- John Burt GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Prince Oil Company Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- X Y ZUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Philadelphia SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- W G Yates & Sons ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Range Avenue SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GRIFFIS MOTORS, INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- Former Landing Strip PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 099F0001 NESHOBANitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Neshoba 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 Neshoba County.
Total Sites
193
across Neshoba County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Neshoba County
Severity Distribution
across Neshoba County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Neshoba County, two things run higher than the national average across Neshoba County — PFAS (4 sites) and CAFO (4 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Neshoba 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 Neshoba County average
Your land is one point inside Neshoba County
Everything above resolves to Neshoba County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 365K 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 Neshoba County Average
Neshoba County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Neshoba County
- ●One soil character for all of Neshoba County
- ●Frost dates read at Neshoba County's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Neshoba County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Neshoba County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Neshoba County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Neshoba County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Neshoba County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Neshoba County average
How we know this about Neshoba 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 Neshoba County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Neshoba County
When does frost risk typically end in Neshoba County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Neshoba County typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Neshoba County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Neshoba County sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 10, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Neshoba County?
The federal record around Neshoba County is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (128), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Neshoba County's scale — its 8b band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Neshoba 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 Neshoba County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Neshoba County's own scale — its own ~268-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 193 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Neshoba County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Neshoba County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~268-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Neshoba CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 193 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Neshoba County's boundary and the 364,886 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Neshoba County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Neshoba 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 Neshoba County — the ~268 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 Neshoba County's 364,886 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 193 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 Neshoba Countyread your own land →