Selmer, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Selmer, 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 Selmer 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 Selmer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Selmer — the short answer
Selmer, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 7b is Selmer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Selmer's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Selmer
Each reading below is measured for Selmer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSelmer runs about 231 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
MeasuredSelmer sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Selmer is in
Selmer sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Selmer's own centroid rather than borrowed from McNairy County.
What Grows in Selmer
Every plant below cleared Selmer's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Selmer?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (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. 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 Selmer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Selmer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Texaco Food Mart # 6Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Merles TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CLASSIC PETROLEUM SERVICES COBrownfields · 1000 ft
- MN:L-006Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Town Of SelmerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Selmer RoseocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Mcnairy Central High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Morton Groc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- By - Pass CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Baker And Baker Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- North Y AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Selmer'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 Selmer.
Total Sites
120
within ~10 miles of Selmer
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Selmer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Selmer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Selmer, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Selmer — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (80 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Selmer
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 Selmer average
Your land is one point inside Selmer
Everything above resolves to Selmer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Selmer Average
Selmer Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Selmer
- ●One soil character for all of Selmer
- ●Frost dates read at Selmer's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Selmer's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Selmer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Selmer, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Selmer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Selmer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Selmer average
How we know this about Selmer
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 Selmer’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 Selmer
When does frost risk typically end in Selmer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Selmer typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Selmer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Selmer 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 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Selmer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Selmer sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Selmer?
The federal record around Selmer shows 120 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), 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 Selmer?
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 Selmer's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Selmer'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 Selmer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Selmer's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,112 acres it covers and 120 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Selmer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Selmer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 120 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Selmer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Selmer's boundary and the 6,112 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Selmer's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Selmer's 6,112 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McNairy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McNairy County
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom McNairy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Selmer's 6,112 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Selmer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,112 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 Selmer-wide figureread your own land →