Osyka, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Osyka, 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 Osyka 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 Osyka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Osyka — the short answer
Osyka, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 678 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Pike County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Pike County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- Pike County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 678 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 Pike County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Osyka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Osyka's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Osyka
Each reading below is measured for Osyka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOsyka runs about 290 days between hard freezes (read from Pike County, the closest normal to Osyka) — 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
MeasuredOsyka 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 Osyka is in
Osyka sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Osyka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Osyka
Every plant below cleared Osyka's own zone 8b and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Osyka?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Osyka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Osyka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Osyka 4-way Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Red & White GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DELTA DOOR DESIGNSBrownfields · 550 ft
- PROGRESS WOODBrownfields · 800 ft
- Osyka GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Smith & SonUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 113K0003 PIKENitrate · 1100 ft
- R AND M SMALL ENGINE REPAIRBrownfields · 1300 ft
- 113K0002 PIKENitrate · 1500 ft
- Sam Cutrer Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SIMCO INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Bst Osyka 76114Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Osyka'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 Osyka.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Osyka
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Osyka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Osyka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Osyka, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Osyka. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Osyka
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 Osyka average
Your land is one point inside Osyka
Everything above resolves to Osyka as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 678 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pike 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 Osyka Average
Osyka Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Osyka
- ●One soil character for all of Osyka
- ●Frost dates read at Osyka's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Osyka's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Osyka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Osyka, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Osyka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Osyka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Osyka average
How we know this about Osyka
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 Pike 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 Osyka
When does frost risk typically end in Osyka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Osyka typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Osyka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Osyka typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Osyka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Osyka sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 18, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Osyka?
The federal record around Osyka shows 133 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Osyka?
From about Nov 2 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 Dec 2 (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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Osyka's scale — its 8b band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Osyka'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 Osyka’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Osyka's own scale — the 678 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Osyka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Osyka, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Osyka's boundary and the 678 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Osyka's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Osyka has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pike County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Osyka's 678 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Osyka's 678 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Osyka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 678 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Osyka-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiOsyka sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.