Yazoo County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Yazoo County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Yazoo 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 Yazoo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yazoo County — the short answer
Yazoo County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 590K 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)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 590K 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 Yazoo County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yazoo County's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Yazoo County
Across a year, Yazoo County accumulates about 5,517 growing degree days above 50°F, about 119 more than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 46 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 1,048 hours below 45°F, 144 fewer 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 Yazoo County
Across Yazoo County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Sharkey, Loring, and Memphis are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.7, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
49%
Hydric soils
28%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Yazoo County
The USDA soil survey maps 38% of Yazoo County as well drained — but another 58% drains differently: 23% poorly drained, 20% moderately well drained.
Sharkey is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Loring (18%) and Memphis (16%).
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 Yazoo County
Each reading below is measured for Yazoo 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 Yazoo 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 Yazoo County runs about pH 5.3–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 28% of Yazoo 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
MeasuredYazoo County runs about 282 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 Yazoo County is in
Yazoo County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (63%) and Mississippi Alluvial Plain (37%). 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 Yazoo County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Yazoo County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 282-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 Yazoo County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 Nov 28 — 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 Yazoo County
USGS estimates 73,064 lb of Glyphosate on Yazoo County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (58,957 lb) and Metolachlor-s (31,896 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 Yazoo County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Yazoo County — 214 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 Yazoo 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 Yazoo County
Closest first, across Yazoo County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Yazoo Trucking CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Hammett & Green Gravel CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Little Yazoo GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Bentonia Radio Relay StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Berry's Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Macel SimmonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Miller Transporters IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Tinsley Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Sohio Petroleum CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Yazoo Motor CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- TERRA INTERNATIONAL INC.Brownfields · 5.0 mi
- Yazoo City MDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yazoo 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 Yazoo County.
Total Sites
214
across Yazoo County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Yazoo County
Severity Distribution
across Yazoo County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yazoo County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 148 sites across Yazoo 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 Yazoo 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 Yazoo County average
Your land is one point inside Yazoo County
Everything above resolves to Yazoo County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 590K 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 Yazoo County Average
Yazoo County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Yazoo County
- ●One soil character for all of Yazoo County
- ●Frost dates read at Yazoo County's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yazoo County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Yazoo County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yazoo County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yazoo County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yazoo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yazoo County average
How we know this about Yazoo 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 Yazoo County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Yazoo County
When does frost risk typically end in Yazoo County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yazoo 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 Yazoo County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yazoo County sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 14, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yazoo County?
The federal record around Yazoo County is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (148), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Yazoo County's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yazoo 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 Yazoo County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Yazoo County's own scale — its own ~282-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 214 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yazoo County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yazoo County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~282-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Yazoo CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 214 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Yazoo County's boundary and the 590,297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Yazoo County spans, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Yazoo 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 Yazoo County — the ~282 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 Yazoo County's 590,297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 214 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 Yazoo Countyread your own land →