Crystal Springs, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Crystal Springs, 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 Crystal Springs 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 Crystal Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crystal Springs — the short answer
Crystal Springs, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Copiah County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Copiah County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- Copiah County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Copiah County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Crystal Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crystal Springs's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crystal Springs
Each reading below is measured for Crystal Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCrystal Springs runs about 281 days between hard freezes (read from Copiah County, the closest normal to Crystal Springs) — 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
MeasuredCrystal Springs 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 Crystal Springs is in
Crystal Springs sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crystal Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Copiah County.
What Grows in Crystal Springs
Every plant below cleared Crystal Springs's own zone 8b and its 281-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crystal Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (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 Crystal Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crystal Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HITACHI ENERGY USA INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- Didlake ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Biggs HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- H & T Service Center IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Me Gas & FoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ABB KUHLMAN, CRYSTAL SPRINGS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- ABB KUHLMAN, CRYSTAL SPRINGS PLANTBrownfields · 650 ft
- Curb StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Bst Crystal Springs Co 76122Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- R & R AGENCYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Martins 66 StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Arthur Lee Evans TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crystal Springs'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 Crystal Springs.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Crystal Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crystal Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crystal Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crystal Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Crystal Springs — Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (101 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Crystal Springs
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 Crystal Springs average
Your land is one point inside Crystal Springs
Everything above resolves to Crystal Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Copiah County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Crystal Springs Average
Crystal Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Crystal Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Crystal Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Crystal Springs's scale: Feb 17 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crystal Springs's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crystal Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crystal Springs, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crystal Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crystal Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crystal Springs average
How we know this about Crystal Springs
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Copiah 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Crystal Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Crystal Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crystal Springs typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Crystal Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crystal Springs 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 281 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crystal Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crystal Springs sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 11, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crystal Springs?
The federal record around Crystal Springs is a meaningful one — 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crystal Springs?
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 Crystal Springs's scale — its 8b band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crystal Springs'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 Crystal Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Crystal Springs's own scale — the 3,475 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crystal Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crystal Springs, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crystal Springs's boundary and the 3,475 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crystal Springs's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Crystal Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Copiah County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crystal Springs's 3,475 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Copiah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Copiah 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 Copiah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crystal Springs's 3,475 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crystal Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,475 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Crystal Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiCrystal Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides