Yalobusha 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Yalobusha County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yalobusha County — the short answer
Yalobusha County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 299K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 299K 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 Yalobusha County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yalobusha County's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Yalobusha County
Across a year, Yalobusha County accumulates about 4,928 growing degree days above 50°F, about 470 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 12 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 1,582 hours below 45°F, 390 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 Yalobusha County
Across Yalobusha County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Smithdale, Providence, and Loring 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
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
11%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Yalobusha County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Yalobusha County as well drained — but another 40% drains differently: 34% moderately well drained, 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 35% of mapped acres, then Providence (24%) and Loring (9%).
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 Yalobusha County
Each reading below is measured for Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha 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
MeasuredYalobusha County runs about 241 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
MeasuredYalobusha 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 Yalobusha County is in
Yalobusha County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (79%) and Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (21%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Yalobusha County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Yalobusha County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 241-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 Yalobusha 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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Yalobusha County
USGS estimates 43,374 lb of Glyphosate on Yalobusha County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (12,138 lb) and 2,4-d (8,648 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 Yalobusha County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Yalobusha County — 112 documented sites across 6 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 Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County
Closest first, across Yalobusha County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Coffeeville Maintenance HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Yalobusha County Beat 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 161G0023 YALOBUSHANitrate · 2.6 mi
- Coffeeville FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Bypass ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Moore's Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Gas Buddy 2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- YALOBUSHA COUNTY RUBBISH LANDFILLToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
- Brewer Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- George DenleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 161L0019 YALOBUSHANitrate · 4.2 mi
- Chappell Sides Farm ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County.
Total Sites
112
across Yalobusha County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Yalobusha County
Severity Distribution
across Yalobusha County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yalobusha County, two things run higher than the national average across Yalobusha County — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (36 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County average
Your land is one point inside Yalobusha County
Everything above resolves to Yalobusha County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 299K 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 Yalobusha County Average
Yalobusha County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Yalobusha County
- ●One soil character for all of Yalobusha County
- ●Frost dates read at Yalobusha County's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yalobusha County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Yalobusha County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yalobusha County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yalobusha County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yalobusha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yalobusha County average
How we know this about Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Yalobusha County
When does frost risk typically end in Yalobusha County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yalobusha County typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Yalobusha County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yalobusha County sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 29, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yalobusha County?
The federal record around Yalobusha County is a meaningful one — 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Yalobusha County's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Yalobusha County's own scale — its own ~241-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 112 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yalobusha County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yalobusha County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Yalobusha CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 112 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Yalobusha County's boundary and the 298,976 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Yalobusha County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County — the ~241 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 Yalobusha County's 298,976 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 112 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 Yalobusha Countyread your own land →