Mantee, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Mantee, 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 Mantee 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 Mantee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mantee — the short answer
Mantee, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Webster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- Webster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- Webster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Webster County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Mantee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mantee's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mantee
Each reading below is measured for Mantee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMantee runs about 247 days between hard freezes (read from Webster County, the closest normal to Mantee) — 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
MeasuredMantee 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 Mantee is in
Mantee sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mantee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster County.
What Grows in Mantee
Every plant below cleared Mantee's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mantee?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Mantee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mantee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 155E0009 WEBSTERNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 155E0002 WEBSTERNitrate · 1.0 mi
- Mantee One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- County Line GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- B & D GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- M J Lancaster GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 155E0010 WEBSTERNitrate · 3.5 mi
- 155E0003 WEBSTERNitrate · 4.0 mi
- Faulkner's Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Walls GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 017N0022 CHICKASAWNitrate · 4.1 mi
- Oms #15Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mantee'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 Mantee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mantee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mantee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mantee, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Mantee. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Mantee
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 Mantee average
Your land is one point inside Mantee
Everything above resolves to Mantee as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Webster 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 Mantee Average
Mantee Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mantee
- ●One soil character for all of Mantee
- ●Frost dates read at Mantee's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mantee's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mantee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mantee, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mantee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mantee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mantee average
How we know this about Mantee
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 Webster 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 Mantee
When does frost risk typically end in Mantee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mantee typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Mantee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mantee typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mantee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mantee sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 1, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mantee?
The federal record around Mantee shows 55 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Mantee?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mantee's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mantee'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 Mantee’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mantee's own scale — the 2,914 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mantee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mantee, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mantee's boundary and the 2,914 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mantee's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mantee has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Webster County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mantee's 2,914 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster 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 Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mantee's 2,914 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mantee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,914 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Mantee-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiMantee sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.