Cruger, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, 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.
Even in Cruger, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Cruger lot. 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 Cruger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cruger — the short answer
Cruger, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 272 days between hard freezes, across 617 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Holmes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Holmes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~272
- Holmes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 617 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Holmes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cruger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cruger's 272-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cruger
Each reading below is measured for Cruger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCruger runs about 272 days between hard freezes (read from Holmes County, the closest normal to Cruger) — 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
MeasuredCruger 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 Cruger is in
Cruger sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cruger's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Holmes County is mostly Mississippi Valley Loess Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cruger
Every plant below cleared Cruger's own zone 8b and its 272-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cruger?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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's on the federal record near Cruger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cruger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gordon Motor CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Toody's Stop-N-Shop LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 051B0010 HOLMESNitrate · 2300 ft
- Ag Air ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 051A0013 HOLMESNitrate · 1.2 mi
- Egypt PlantationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Aviation ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- EAST LEFLORE WATER & SEWER DSTPFAS · 5.9 mi
- 083O0099 LEFLORENitrate · 6.0 mi
- Frank's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Rushing Communications CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Herbert Williams StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cruger'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 Cruger.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Cruger
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cruger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cruger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cruger, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Cruger. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Cruger
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 Cruger average
Your land is one point inside Cruger
Everything above resolves to Cruger as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 617 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Holmes County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Cruger Average
Cruger Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cruger
- ●One soil character for all of Cruger
- ●Frost dates read at Cruger's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cruger's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cruger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cruger, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cruger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cruger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cruger average
How we know this about Cruger
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Holmes County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Cruger
When does frost risk typically end in Cruger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cruger typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cruger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cruger typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 272 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cruger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cruger sees about 272 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 11, about 237 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cruger?
The federal record around Cruger shows 49 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cruger?
From about Oct 26 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cruger's scale — its 8b band and its 272-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cruger's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Cruger’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cruger's own scale — the 617 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cruger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cruger, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cruger's boundary and the 617 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~272-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cruger sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cruger has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Holmes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cruger's 617 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Holmes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Holmes County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Holmes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cruger's 617 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cruger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 617 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Cruger-wide figureread your own land →
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