Winona, 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 Winona, 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 Winona 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 Winona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winona — the short answer
Winona, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Montgomery County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Winona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winona's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winona
Each reading below is measured for Winona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWinona runs about 233 days between hard freezes (read from Montgomery County, the closest normal to Winona) — 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
MeasuredWinona 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 Winona is in
Winona sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Winona's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Montgomery County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Winona
Every plant below cleared Winona's own zone 8a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winona?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Winona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Skyview ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- City Of WinonaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Kwik WayUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- A & A GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Kings GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Bridges Southland StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Hodges Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Ellis Tractor CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Bst-winona Soc-73234Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 097F0003 MONTGOMERYNitrate · 2300 ft
- Biloxi Unit International PaperUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Triple Stop #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winona'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 Winona.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Winona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winona, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 70 sites within ~10 miles of Winona. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Winona
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 Winona average
Your land is one point inside Winona
Everything above resolves to Winona as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Montgomery County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Winona Average
Winona Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Winona
- ●One soil character for all of Winona
- ●Frost dates read at Winona's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winona's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winona, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winona average
How we know this about Winona
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Montgomery 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Winona
When does frost risk typically end in Winona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winona typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Winona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winona typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winona sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 27, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winona?
The federal record around Winona shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Winona?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winona's scale — its 8a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winona'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 Winona’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Winona's own scale — the 8,650 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winona's boundary and the 8,650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Winona 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 — Winona has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Montgomery County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winona's 8,650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winona's 8,650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,650 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Winona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiWinona sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides