Pontotoc, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 Pontotoc, 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 Pontotoc 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 Pontotoc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pontotoc — the short answer
Pontotoc, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Pontotoc's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pontotoc's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pontotoc
Each reading below is measured for Pontotoc itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPontotoc runs about 258 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredPontotoc 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 Pontotoc is in
Pontotoc sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pontotoc's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pontotoc County.
What Grows in Pontotoc
Every plant below cleared Pontotoc's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pontotoc?
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 Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Pontotoc
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pontotoc. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kitchen FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Pontotoc Health Services IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Dino Mart # 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Russell Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 115G0028 PONTOTOCNitrate · 1600 ft
- T-mart #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EATON CUSTOM SEATING LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- COOPER INDUSTRIES MOOG AUTOMOTIVE PONTOTOC OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- COOPER INDUSTRIES MOOG AUTOMOTIVE PONTOTOC OPERATIONSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Ideal LeaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Pontotoc Super SaverUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CARPENTER COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pontotoc'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 Pontotoc.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Pontotoc
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pontotoc
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pontotoc
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pontotoc, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pontotoc — Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (77 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pontotoc
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 Pontotoc average
Your land is one point inside Pontotoc
Everything above resolves to Pontotoc as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K acres. 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 city 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 Pontotoc Average
Pontotoc Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pontotoc
- ●One soil character for all of Pontotoc
- ●Frost dates read at Pontotoc's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pontotoc's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pontotoc
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pontotoc, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pontotoc averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pontotoc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pontotoc average
How we know this about Pontotoc
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pontotoc’s own record; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Pontotoc
When does frost risk typically end in Pontotoc?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pontotoc typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Pontotoc?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pontotoc typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pontotoc?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pontotoc sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 7, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pontotoc?
The federal record around Pontotoc shows 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Pontotoc?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pontotoc's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pontotoc'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 Pontotoc’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pontotoc's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,155 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pontotoc's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pontotoc's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 21 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pontotoc, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pontotoc's boundary and the 7,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pontotoc's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pontotoc's 7,155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pontotoc County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pontotoc 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 Pontotoc County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pontotoc's 7,155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pontotoc you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Pontotoc-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiPontotoc sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides