Iuka, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Iuka, 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 Iuka 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 Iuka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Iuka — the short answer
Iuka, Mississippi: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Iuka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Iuka's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Iuka
Each reading below is measured for Iuka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIuka 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
MeasuredIuka 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 Iuka is in
Iuka sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Iuka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tishomingo County.
What Grows in Iuka
Every plant below cleared Iuka's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Iuka?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Iuka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Iuka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Iuka High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Q-martUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Iuka TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Uncle Joe's Food Mart #28Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HODGE PARTS HOUSEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Sprint Mart #41Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Kirk's BpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GENESCO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- GENESCO INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Hiwassee Land Company WoodyardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WALMART #274Brownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Iuka'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 Iuka.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of Iuka
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Iuka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Iuka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Iuka, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Iuka. 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 Iuka
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 Iuka average
Your land is one point inside Iuka
Everything above resolves to Iuka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 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 Iuka Average
Iuka Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Iuka
- ●One soil character for all of Iuka
- ●Frost dates read at Iuka's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Iuka's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Iuka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Iuka, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Iuka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Iuka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Iuka average
How we know this about Iuka
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 Iuka’s own record; 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 Iuka
When does frost risk typically end in Iuka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Iuka 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.
When is the first frost in Iuka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Iuka typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Iuka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Iuka 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 Iuka?
The federal record around Iuka shows 153 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (80), 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 Iuka?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Iuka's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Iuka'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 Iuka’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Iuka's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,204 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Iuka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Iuka's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 10 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Iuka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Iuka's boundary and the 6,204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Iuka's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Iuka's 6,204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tishomingo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tishomingo 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 Tishomingo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Iuka's 6,204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Iuka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,204 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 Iuka-wide figureread your own land →