Pelahatchie, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pelahatchie, 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 Pelahatchie 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 Pelahatchie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pelahatchie — the short answer
Pelahatchie, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Rankin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pelahatchie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pelahatchie's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pelahatchie
Each reading below is measured for Pelahatchie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPelahatchie runs about 278 days between hard freezes (read from Rankin County, the closest normal to Pelahatchie) — 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
MeasuredPelahatchie 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 Pelahatchie is in
Pelahatchie sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pelahatchie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rankin County.
What Grows in Pelahatchie
Every plant below cleared Pelahatchie's own zone 8b and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pelahatchie?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Pelahatchie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pelahatchie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MULTITEC-PTG INCToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- Pelahatchie Processing DivisionUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Davis PropertiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Quick BuyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Spaceway Oil #514Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Bob's Gas of PelahatchieUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Don Davis ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Ross Neal WoodyardUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Bst Pelahatchie Co 72113Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Chevron USA IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 121K0004 RANKINNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 121J0004 RANKINNitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pelahatchie'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 Pelahatchie.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Pelahatchie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pelahatchie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pelahatchie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pelahatchie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pelahatchie — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pelahatchie
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 Pelahatchie average
Your land is one point inside Pelahatchie
Everything above resolves to Pelahatchie as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Rankin 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 Pelahatchie Average
Pelahatchie Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pelahatchie
- ●One soil character for all of Pelahatchie
- ●Frost dates read at Pelahatchie's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pelahatchie's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pelahatchie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pelahatchie, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pelahatchie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pelahatchie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pelahatchie average
How we know this about Pelahatchie
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 Rankin 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 Pelahatchie
When does frost risk typically end in Pelahatchie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pelahatchie typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Pelahatchie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pelahatchie typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pelahatchie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pelahatchie sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 12, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pelahatchie?
The federal record around Pelahatchie is a meaningful one — 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pelahatchie?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pelahatchie's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pelahatchie'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 Pelahatchie’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pelahatchie's own scale — the 3,802 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pelahatchie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pelahatchie, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pelahatchie's boundary and the 3,802 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pelahatchie's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pelahatchie has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Rankin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pelahatchie's 3,802 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rankin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rankin 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 Rankin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pelahatchie's 3,802 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pelahatchie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,802 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Pelahatchie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiPelahatchie sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.