White Oak, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in White Oak, 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 White Oak 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 White Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Oak — the short answer
White Oak, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 296 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- Tunica County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Tunica County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Tunica County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 296 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 Tunica County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is White Oak's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Oak's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Oak
Each reading below is measured for White Oak itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWhite Oak runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Tunica County, the closest normal to White Oak) — 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
MeasuredWhite Oak 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 White Oak is in
White Oak sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at White Oak's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tunica County.
What Grows in White Oak
Every plant below cleared White Oak's own zone 8a and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Oak?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around White Oak
Survey cells within 31 miles of White Oak checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 220 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near White Oak
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Oak. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mahan GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TUNICA AIR SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- DREXEL CHEMICAL COBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- DREXEL CHEMICAL COToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- D & R GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TUNICA COUNTY UTILITY DISTRICTPFAS · 2.3 mi
- TOWN OF TUNICAPFAS · 2.3 mi
- TUNICA FARM EQUIPMENT COMPANY INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- TUNICA MUNICIPAL AIRPORTBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Ms Department Of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Hendrix Oil IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Tunica Farm Equipment CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Oak'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 White Oak.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of White Oak
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Oak
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Oak
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Oak, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of White Oak. 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 White Oak
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 White Oak average
Your land is one point inside White Oak
Everything above resolves to White Oak as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 296 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tunica 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 White Oak Average
White Oak Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across White Oak
- ●One soil character for all of White Oak
- ●Frost dates read at White Oak's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Oak's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Oak
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Oak, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Oak averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Oak — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Oak average
How we know this about White Oak
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 Tunica 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 White Oak
When does frost risk typically end in White Oak?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Oak 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 White Oak?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Oak typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Oak?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Oak sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 10, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Oak?
The federal record around White Oak shows 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 White Oak?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Oak's scale — its 8a band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Oak'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 White Oak’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at White Oak's own scale — the 296 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Oak's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Oak, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Oak's boundary and the 296 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Oak's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around White Oak checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — White Oak has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tunica County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so White Oak's 296 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tunica County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tunica 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 Tunica County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Oak's 296 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Oak you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 296 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 White Oak-wide figureread your own land →
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