Shuqualak, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Shuqualak, 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 Shuqualak 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 Shuqualak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shuqualak — the short answer
Shuqualak, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 723 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- Noxubee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Noxubee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Noxubee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 723 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 Noxubee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Shuqualak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shuqualak's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shuqualak
Each reading below is measured for Shuqualak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsShuqualak runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Noxubee County, the closest normal to Shuqualak) — 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
MeasuredShuqualak 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 Shuqualak is in
Shuqualak sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shuqualak's own centroid rather than borrowed from Noxubee County.
What Grows in Shuqualak
Every plant below cleared Shuqualak's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shuqualak?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Shuqualak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shuqualak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Shuqualak Package StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 103S0011 NOXUBEENitrate · 400 ft
- SHUQUALAK LUMBER COMPANY INC, PLANER MILL DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- Hands On Car CareUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 103S0007 NOXUBEENitrate · 800 ft
- Presley Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 103S0017 NOXUBEENitrate · 1300 ft
- 103S0006 NOXUBEENitrate · 1300 ft
- Delta Brick ShuqualakUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Prince Lumber CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Edwards Shell ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Clark Texaco Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shuqualak'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 Shuqualak.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Shuqualak
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shuqualak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shuqualak
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shuqualak, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shuqualak — Nitrate (34 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Shuqualak
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 Shuqualak average
Your land is one point inside Shuqualak
Everything above resolves to Shuqualak as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 723 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Noxubee 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 Shuqualak Average
Shuqualak Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Shuqualak
- ●One soil character for all of Shuqualak
- ●Frost dates read at Shuqualak's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shuqualak's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shuqualak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shuqualak, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shuqualak averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shuqualak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shuqualak average
How we know this about Shuqualak
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 Noxubee 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 Shuqualak
When does frost risk typically end in Shuqualak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shuqualak typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Shuqualak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shuqualak typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shuqualak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shuqualak sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 9, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shuqualak?
The federal record around Shuqualak shows 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Shuqualak?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shuqualak's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shuqualak'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 Shuqualak’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Shuqualak's own scale — the 723 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shuqualak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shuqualak, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shuqualak's boundary and the 723 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shuqualak's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Shuqualak has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Noxubee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shuqualak's 723 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Noxubee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Noxubee 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 Noxubee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shuqualak's 723 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shuqualak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 723 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Shuqualak-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Growing region
Nearby growing guides