Nitta Yuma, 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.
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 Nitta Yuma, 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 Nitta Yuma 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 Nitta Yuma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nitta Yuma — the short answer
Nitta Yuma, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 123 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Sharkey County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Sharkey County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Sharkey County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 123 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 Sharkey County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Nitta Yuma's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nitta Yuma's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nitta Yuma
Each reading below is measured for Nitta Yuma itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNitta Yuma runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Sharkey County, the closest normal to Nitta Yuma) — 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
MeasuredNitta Yuma 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 Nitta Yuma is in
Nitta Yuma sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nitta Yuma's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sharkey County.
What Grows in Nitta Yuma
Every plant below cleared Nitta Yuma's own zone 8b and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nitta Yuma?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Nitta Yuma
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nitta Yuma. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Phelps FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CametaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Wilson's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 125C0043 SHARKEYNitrate · 3.2 mi
- Anguilla Farm ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Collins & Collins Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- A B Brown Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 125C0022 SHARKEYNitrate · 3.6 mi
- Steven's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Maranto's CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- 125A0006 SHARKEYNitrate · 4.2 mi
- W C Woodruff IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nitta Yuma'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 Nitta Yuma.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nitta Yuma
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nitta Yuma
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nitta Yuma, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Nitta Yuma. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Nitta Yuma
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 Nitta Yuma average
Your land is one point inside Nitta Yuma
Everything above resolves to Nitta Yuma as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 123 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sharkey 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 Nitta Yuma Average
Nitta Yuma Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Nitta Yuma
- ●One soil character for all of Nitta Yuma
- ●Frost dates read at Nitta Yuma's scale: Feb 18 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nitta Yuma's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nitta Yuma
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nitta Yuma, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nitta Yuma averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nitta Yuma — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nitta Yuma average
How we know this about Nitta Yuma
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 Sharkey 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 Nitta Yuma
When does frost risk typically end in Nitta Yuma?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nitta Yuma typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Nitta Yuma?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nitta Yuma typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nitta Yuma?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nitta Yuma sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 16, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nitta Yuma?
The federal record around Nitta Yuma shows 95 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Nitta Yuma?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nitta Yuma's scale — its 8b band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nitta Yuma'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 Nitta Yuma’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Nitta Yuma's own scale — the 123 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nitta Yuma's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nitta Yuma, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nitta Yuma's boundary and the 123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nitta Yuma's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Nitta Yuma has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sharkey County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nitta Yuma's 123 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sharkey County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sharkey 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 Sharkey County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nitta Yuma's 123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nitta Yuma you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 123 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Nitta Yuma-wide figureread your own land →
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