Scooba, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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 Scooba, 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 Scooba 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 Scooba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scooba — the short answer
Scooba, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Kemper County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Kemper County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Kemper 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 Kemper County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Scooba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scooba's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scooba
Each reading below is measured for Scooba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsScooba runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Kemper County, the closest normal to Scooba) — 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
MeasuredScooba 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 Scooba is in
Scooba sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scooba's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kemper County.
What Grows in Scooba
Every plant below cleared Scooba's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scooba?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Scooba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scooba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Weyerhauser CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BRAINERD CHEMICAL SOUTHEAST LLCToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- 069K0021 KEMPERNitrate · 1000 ft
- Smith's SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 069K0005 KEMPERNitrate · 2200 ft
- 069K0001 KEMPERNitrate · 2300 ft
- East Mississippi Community CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Scooba JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Hg Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Briggs Five PointUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 069K0014 KEMPERNitrate · 1.0 mi
- Truck Stop PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scooba'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 Scooba.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Scooba
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scooba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scooba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scooba, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Scooba. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Scooba
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 Scooba average
Your land is one point inside Scooba
Everything above resolves to Scooba as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kemper 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 Scooba Average
Scooba Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Scooba
- ●One soil character for all of Scooba
- ●Frost dates read at Scooba's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scooba's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scooba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scooba, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scooba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scooba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scooba average
How we know this about Scooba
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 Kemper 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 Scooba
When does frost risk typically end in Scooba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scooba typically lands around Feb 28, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Scooba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scooba 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 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scooba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scooba sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 11, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scooba?
The federal record around Scooba shows 78 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Scooba?
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 Scooba's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scooba'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 Scooba’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Scooba's own scale — the 1,587 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scooba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scooba, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scooba's boundary and the 1,587 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Scooba's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Scooba has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kemper County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scooba's 1,587 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kemper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kemper 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 Kemper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scooba's 1,587 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scooba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,587 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Scooba-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiScooba sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides