Prentiss, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Prentiss, 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 Prentiss 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 Prentiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prentiss — the short answer
Prentiss, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Jefferson Davis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Jefferson Davis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- Jefferson Davis 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 Jefferson Davis County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Prentiss's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prentiss's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prentiss
Each reading below is measured for Prentiss itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPrentiss runs about 286 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson Davis County, the closest normal to Prentiss) — 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
MeasuredPrentiss 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 Prentiss is in
Prentiss sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Prentiss's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson Davis County.
What Grows in Prentiss
Every plant below cleared Prentiss's own zone 8b and its 286-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prentiss?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (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 Prentiss
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prentiss. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- South Central Ready MixUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- School Bus ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Prentiss Co OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 065E0003 JEFFERSON DAVISNitrate · 2200 ft
- 065E0001 JEFFERSON DAVISNitrate · 2200 ft
- Handy Pak #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Prentiss Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Windstream Mississippi IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Prentiss High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COULTERS INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- JEFFERSON-DAVIS DRUM SITESuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Town Of PrentissUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prentiss'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 Prentiss.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Prentiss
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prentiss
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prentiss
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prentiss, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Prentiss. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Prentiss
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 Prentiss average
Your land is one point inside Prentiss
Everything above resolves to Prentiss as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson Davis 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 Prentiss Average
Prentiss Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Prentiss
- ●One soil character for all of Prentiss
- ●Frost dates read at Prentiss's scale: Feb 17 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prentiss's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prentiss
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prentiss, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prentiss averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prentiss — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prentiss average
How we know this about Prentiss
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 Jefferson Davis 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 Prentiss
When does frost risk typically end in Prentiss?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prentiss typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Prentiss?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prentiss 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 286 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prentiss?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prentiss sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 16, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prentiss?
The federal record around Prentiss is a meaningful one — 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Prentiss?
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 Prentiss's scale — its 8b band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prentiss'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 Prentiss’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Prentiss's own scale — the 1,914 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prentiss's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prentiss, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prentiss's boundary and the 1,914 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prentiss's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Prentiss has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson Davis County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prentiss's 1,914 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson Davis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson Davis 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 Jefferson Davis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prentiss's 1,914 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prentiss you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,914 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 Prentiss-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiPrentiss sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides