Rienzi, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Rienzi, 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 Rienzi 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 Rienzi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rienzi — the short answer
Rienzi, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 634 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 634 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 Rienzi's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rienzi's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rienzi
Each reading below is measured for Rienzi itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRienzi runs about 249 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
MeasuredRienzi 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 Rienzi is in
Rienzi sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rienzi's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alcorn County.
What Grows in Rienzi
Every plant below cleared Rienzi's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rienzi?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Rienzi
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rienzi. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mid South Telephone CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 003K0052 ALCORNNitrate · 1000 ft
- 003K0016 ALCORNNitrate · 1400 ft
- Westvaco Corporation, Fine Papers DivUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Rienzi SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Bishop's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Bodeaux's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Vern Crowe's AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Jacinto MdseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 003L0007 ALCORNNitrate · 1.8 mi
- Benjamin's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Allens GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rienzi'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 Rienzi.
Total Sites
165
within ~10 miles of Rienzi
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rienzi
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rienzi
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rienzi, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rienzi — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Rienzi
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 Rienzi average
Your land is one point inside Rienzi
Everything above resolves to Rienzi as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 634 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 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 Rienzi Average
Rienzi Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Rienzi
- ●One soil character for all of Rienzi
- ●Frost dates read at Rienzi's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rienzi's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rienzi
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rienzi, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rienzi averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rienzi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rienzi average
How we know this about Rienzi
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 Rienzi’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 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 Rienzi
When does frost risk typically end in Rienzi?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rienzi typically lands around Mar 12, 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 Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Rienzi?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rienzi typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rienzi?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rienzi sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 2, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rienzi?
The federal record around Rienzi is a meaningful one — 165 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), 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 Rienzi?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rienzi's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rienzi'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 Rienzi’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rienzi's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 634 acres it covers and 165 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rienzi's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rienzi's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 16 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 165 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rienzi, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rienzi's boundary and the 634 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rienzi's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rienzi's 634 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alcorn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alcorn 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 Alcorn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rienzi's 634 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rienzi you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 634 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 Rienzi-wide figureread your own land →