Wheeler, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wheeler, 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 Wheeler 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 Wheeler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wheeler — the short answer
Wheeler, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Wheeler's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wheeler's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wheeler
Each reading below is measured for Wheeler itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWheeler runs about 253 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
MeasuredWheeler 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 Wheeler is in
Wheeler sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wheeler's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prentiss County.
What Grows in Wheeler
Every plant below cleared Wheeler's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wheeler?
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 Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Wheeler
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wheeler. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Joe Wayne Garner FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 117K0039 PRENTISSNitrate · 950 ft
- Kimes & Stone ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Amoco Service Station #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Mckissack Welding & FabricationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Richardson's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Classic Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- NORTHEAST MISSISSIPPI COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- Fred H Benjamin GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- MAPLE LAND AND TIMBER LLCToxics Release Inventory · 4.2 mi
- FLEXIBLE FOAM PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
- FLEXIBLE FOAM PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wheeler'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 Wheeler.
Total Sites
181
within ~10 miles of Wheeler
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
21 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wheeler
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wheeler
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wheeler, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wheeler — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Wheeler
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 Wheeler average
Your land is one point inside Wheeler
Everything above resolves to Wheeler as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Wheeler Average
Wheeler Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wheeler
- ●One soil character for all of Wheeler
- ●Frost dates read at Wheeler's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wheeler's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wheeler
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wheeler, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wheeler averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wheeler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wheeler average
How we know this about Wheeler
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 Wheeler’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 Wheeler
When does frost risk typically end in Wheeler?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wheeler typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Wheeler?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wheeler typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wheeler?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wheeler sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 5, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wheeler?
The federal record around Wheeler is a meaningful one — 181 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), 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 Wheeler?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wheeler's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wheeler'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 Wheeler’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wheeler's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,245 acres it covers and 181 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wheeler's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wheeler's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 19 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 181 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wheeler, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wheeler's boundary and the 1,245 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wheeler's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wheeler's 1,245 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prentiss County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prentiss 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 Prentiss County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wheeler's 1,245 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wheeler you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,245 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 Wheeler-wide figureread your own land →