Tillatoba, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tillatoba, 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 Tillatoba 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 Tillatoba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tillatoba — the short answer
Tillatoba, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 649 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- Yalobusha County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- Yalobusha County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- Yalobusha County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 649 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 Yalobusha County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Tillatoba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tillatoba's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tillatoba
Each reading below is measured for Tillatoba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTillatoba runs about 241 days between hard freezes (read from Yalobusha County, the closest normal to Tillatoba) — 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
MeasuredTillatoba 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 Tillatoba is in
Tillatoba sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tillatoba's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Yalobusha County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tillatoba
Every plant below cleared Tillatoba's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tillatoba?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Tillatoba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tillatoba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Louise GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Robert TooleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Griffis Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- G T & Y WATER DISTRICT INCPFAS · 1.7 mi
- Four Forks GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 161E0003 YALOBUSHANitrate · 3.2 mi
- 161E0063 YALOBUSHANitrate · 3.7 mi
- 135G0001 TALLAHATCHIENitrate · 4.3 mi
- Strider AcademyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 161K0001 YALOBUSHANitrate · 4.5 mi
- Worsham's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- 161E0002 YALOBUSHANitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tillatoba'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 Tillatoba.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Tillatoba
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tillatoba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tillatoba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tillatoba, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Tillatoba. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tillatoba
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 Tillatoba average
Your land is one point inside Tillatoba
Everything above resolves to Tillatoba as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 649 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yalobusha 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 Tillatoba Average
Tillatoba Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tillatoba
- ●One soil character for all of Tillatoba
- ●Frost dates read at Tillatoba's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tillatoba's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tillatoba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tillatoba, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tillatoba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tillatoba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tillatoba average
How we know this about Tillatoba
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 Yalobusha 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 Tillatoba
When does frost risk typically end in Tillatoba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tillatoba typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Tillatoba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tillatoba typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tillatoba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tillatoba sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 29, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tillatoba?
The federal record around Tillatoba shows 75 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 Tillatoba?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tillatoba's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tillatoba'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 Tillatoba’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tillatoba's own scale — the 649 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tillatoba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tillatoba, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tillatoba's boundary and the 649 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tillatoba sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tillatoba has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yalobusha County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tillatoba's 649 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yalobusha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yalobusha 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 Yalobusha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tillatoba's 649 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tillatoba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 649 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 Tillatoba-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiTillatoba sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides