Tippah County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Tippah County lies within the North Mississippi Hills (Northeast Hills) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Tippah County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Tippah 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 Tippah County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tippah County — the short answer
Tippah County, Mississippi: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 293K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 293K 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 7b is Tippah County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tippah County's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Tippah County
Across a year, Tippah County accumulates about 4,496 growing degree days above 50°F, about 902 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — no other Mississippi county banks fewer. 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 1,807 hours below 45°F, 615 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 Tippah County
Across Tippah County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Smithdale, Falaya, and Providence are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Tippah County
The USDA soil survey maps 30% of Tippah County as well drained — but another 47% drains differently: 22% somewhat poorly drained, 22% moderately well drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Falaya (11%) and Providence (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 Tippah County
Each reading below is measured for Tippah 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 Tippah 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 Tippah 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
MeasuredTippah County runs about 233 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
MeasuredTippah County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Tippah County is in
Tippah 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 Tippah County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Tippah County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 233-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 Tippah County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Tippah County
USGS estimates 24,867 lb of Glyphosate on Tippah County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (5,840 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (4,562 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 Tippah County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Tippah County — 145 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 Tippah 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 Tippah County
Closest first, across Tippah County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Jordan Wood ProductsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ALCOA FUJIKURA LTD, RIPLEYToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- ALCOA FUJIKURA LTD, RIPLEYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BENCHCRAFT, RIPLEY FACILITIESToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- INDUSTRIAL TIMBER, RIPLEY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- Prather's PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FIVE STAR PRODUCTS INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- FIVE STAR PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- Buddies One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 76 Stop & ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Chevron Ripley LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ELITE ELASTOMERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tippah 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 Tippah County.
Total Sites
145
across Tippah County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Tippah County
Severity Distribution
across Tippah County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tippah County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 12 sites across Tippah County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Tippah 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 Tippah County average
Your land is one point inside Tippah County
Everything above resolves to Tippah County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 293K 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 Tippah County Average
Tippah County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Tippah County
- ●One soil character for all of Tippah County
- ●Frost dates read at Tippah County's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tippah County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Tippah County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tippah County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tippah County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tippah County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tippah County average
How we know this about Tippah 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 Tippah County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Tippah County
When does frost risk typically end in Tippah County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tippah County typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Tippah County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tippah County sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 27, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tippah County?
The federal record around Tippah County shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Tippah County's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tippah 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 Tippah County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Tippah County's own scale — its own ~233-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 145 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tippah County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tippah County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Tippah CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 145 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Tippah County's boundary and the 293,006 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tippah County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Tippah 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 Tippah County — the ~233 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 Tippah County's 293,006 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 145 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 Tippah Countyread your own land →