Sunflower County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Sunflower 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
Sunflower County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sunflower 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 Sunflower County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sunflower County — the short answer
Sunflower County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 447K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 447K 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 Sunflower County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunflower County's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Sunflower County
Across a year, Sunflower County accumulates about 5,466 growing degree days above 50°F, about 68 more than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 45 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 1,222 hours below 45°F, 30 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 Sunflower County
Across Sunflower County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Alligator, Forestdale, and Dowling 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
77%
Hydric soils
80%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sunflower County
The USDA soil survey maps 57% of Sunflower County as poorly drained — but another 42% drains differently: 21% very poorly drained, 18% somewhat poorly drained.
Alligator is the most extensive named soil at 27% of mapped acres, then Forestdale (27%) and Dowling (21%).
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 Sunflower County
Each reading below is measured for Sunflower 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 Sunflower 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 Sunflower 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
MeasuredSunflower County runs about 286 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
MeasuredSunflower 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 Sunflower County is in
Sunflower 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 Sunflower County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sunflower County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 286-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 Sunflower 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 Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Sunflower County
USGS estimates 350,638 lb of Glyphosate on Sunflower County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (249,734 lb) and Metolachlor-s (177,208 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 Sunflower County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sunflower County — 241 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Sunflower 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 Sunflower County
Closest first, across Sunflower County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Roundaway GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Trice GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Gentry's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Sunflower EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- W A Gatewood StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- County Road Department Barn BlaineUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- 133L0020 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 4.3 mi
- 133O2058 SUNFLOWER (Sunflower)Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- 133O2058B SUNFLOWERNitrate · 5.0 mi
- 133O0254 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 5.0 mi
- 133O0255 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 5.0 mi
- 133O0253 SUNFLOWERNitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunflower 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 Sunflower County.
Total Sites
241
across Sunflower County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Sunflower County
Severity Distribution
across Sunflower County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunflower County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 159 sites across Sunflower County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sunflower 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 Sunflower County average
Your land is one point inside Sunflower County
Everything above resolves to Sunflower County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 447K 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 Sunflower County Average
Sunflower County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sunflower County
- ●One soil character for all of Sunflower County
- ●Frost dates read at Sunflower County's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunflower County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sunflower County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunflower County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunflower County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunflower County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunflower County average
How we know this about Sunflower 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 Sunflower County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sunflower County
When does frost risk typically end in Sunflower County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunflower County typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Sunflower County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunflower County sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 18, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunflower County?
The federal record around Sunflower County is a meaningful one — 241 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (159), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sunflower County's scale — its 8b band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunflower 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 Sunflower County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Sunflower County's own scale — its own ~286-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 241 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunflower County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunflower County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~286-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sunflower CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 241 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sunflower County's boundary and the 446,565 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sunflower County sitting wholly inside the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sunflower 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 Sunflower County — the ~286 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 Sunflower County's 446,565 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 241 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 Sunflower Countyread your own land →