Quitman 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Quitman County lies within the Mississippi Delta — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Quitman County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Quitman 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 Quitman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Quitman County — the short answer
Quitman County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 259K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 259K 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 Quitman County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quitman County's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Quitman County
Across a year, Quitman County accumulates about 5,179 growing degree days above 50°F, about 219 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 27 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 1,544 hours below 45°F, 352 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 Quitman County
Across Quitman County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Alligator, Dowling, and Forestdale are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–6.8, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
50%
Hydric soils
80%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Quitman County
The USDA soil survey maps 59% of Quitman County as poorly drained — but another 39% drains differently: 18% very poorly drained, 13% somewhat poorly drained.
Alligator is the most extensive named soil at 30% of mapped acres, then Dowling (22%) and Forestdale (11%).
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 Quitman County
Each reading below is measured for Quitman 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 Quitman County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group 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 Quitman County runs about pH 5.0–6.8, 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
MeasuredQuitman County runs about 265 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
MeasuredQuitman 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 Quitman County is in
Quitman County sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Quitman County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Quitman County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 265-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 Quitman 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 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 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What gets applied to farmland in Quitman County
USGS estimates 259,216 lb of Glyphosate on Quitman County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (113,798 lb) and Metolachlor-s (83,382 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 Quitman County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Quitman County — 89 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Quitman 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 Quitman County
Closest first, across Quitman County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 119E0031 QUITMANNitrate · 0.7 mi
- Quitman County SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Gas Mart ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Holman's Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Marks Maintenance HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 119E0037 QUITMANNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Kirby Wills PlantationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Former Billups Station #5604Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Gurley's Day & NightUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Property Of Quitman CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Junior FoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Delta Burial CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Quitman 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 Quitman County.
Total Sites
89
across Quitman County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Quitman County
Severity Distribution
across Quitman County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Quitman County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites across Quitman County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Quitman 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 Quitman County average
Your land is one point inside Quitman County
Everything above resolves to Quitman County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 259K 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 Quitman County Average
Quitman County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Quitman County
- ●One soil character for all of Quitman County
- ●Frost dates read at Quitman County's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quitman County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Quitman County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quitman County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quitman County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quitman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quitman County average
How we know this about Quitman 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 Quitman County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Quitman County
When does frost risk typically end in Quitman County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quitman 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 Quitman County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quitman County sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 7, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quitman County?
The federal record around Quitman County shows 89 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Quitman County's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quitman 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 Quitman County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Quitman County's own scale — its own ~265-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 89 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quitman County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Quitman County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Quitman CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 89 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Quitman County's boundary and the 259,207 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Quitman County sitting wholly inside the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Quitman 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 Quitman County — the ~265 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 Quitman County's 259,207 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 89 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 Quitman Countyread your own land →