Pachuta, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pachuta, 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 Pachuta 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 Pachuta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pachuta — the short answer
Pachuta, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Clarke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Clarke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- Clarke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Clarke County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pachuta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pachuta's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pachuta
Each reading below is measured for Pachuta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPachuta runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Clarke County, the closest normal to Pachuta) — 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
MeasuredPachuta 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 Pachuta is in
Pachuta sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pachuta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clarke County.
What Grows in Pachuta
Every plant below cleared Pachuta's own zone 8b and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pachuta?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (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 Pachuta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pachuta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 023L0001 CLARKENitrate · 750 ft
- SIPCAM ARGO SOLUTIONS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- SIPCAM ARGO SOLUTIONS, LLCBrownfields · 900 ft
- The Market BasketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- 023L0025 CLARKENitrate · 1900 ft
- Old Elkin's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Lewis GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 023L0008 CLARKENitrate · 1.2 mi
- Double B Food Mart #6Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Pittman's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 023A0002 CLARKENitrate · 4.1 mi
- HARMONY GAS PLANTBrownfields · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pachuta'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 Pachuta.
Total Sites
104
within ~10 miles of Pachuta
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pachuta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pachuta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pachuta, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Pachuta. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pachuta
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 Pachuta average
Your land is one point inside Pachuta
Everything above resolves to Pachuta as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clarke 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 Pachuta Average
Pachuta Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pachuta
- ●One soil character for all of Pachuta
- ●Frost dates read at Pachuta's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pachuta's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pachuta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pachuta, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pachuta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pachuta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pachuta average
How we know this about Pachuta
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 Clarke 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 Pachuta
When does frost risk typically end in Pachuta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pachuta typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Pachuta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pachuta 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 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pachuta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pachuta sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 11, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pachuta?
The federal record around Pachuta shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Pachuta?
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 Pachuta's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pachuta'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 Pachuta’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pachuta's own scale — the 1,561 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pachuta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pachuta, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pachuta's boundary and the 1,561 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pachuta's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pachuta has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clarke County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pachuta's 1,561 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clarke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clarke 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 Clarke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pachuta's 1,561 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pachuta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,561 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Pachuta-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiPachuta sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides