What USDA hardiness zone is Sunflower County, Mississippi?

Every ZIP code in Sunflower County, Mississippi is USDA hardiness zone 8b, from the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

When is the last spring frost in Sunflower County, Mississippi?

The median last spring freeze runs March 8 – March 16 across the 4 NOAA weather stations serving Sunflower County, Mississippi, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Mississippi

Planting zones in Sunflower County, Mississippi

Every ZIP code in this county is USDA zone 8b — so unlike most of the places people look up, there is one right answer here and it holds wherever you are in the county.

USDA zone 8b The same in all 9 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 9 9 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 4 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 698 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Sunflower County, Mississippi as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

Sunflower County does not have one planting answer

Its own weather stations disagree about 13 of the 32 crops in this table right now, so any single list would be wrong for part of the county. That is not a gap in the data — it is what the data says.

Shortest season: 241 days
CLEVELAND 3 N, MS US (USC00221743)
Longest season: 255 days
MOORHEAD, MS US (USC00226009)

14 days of growing season separate those two stations, and both serve ZIP codes in Sunflower County. The ZIP lookup above answers for one address instead of averaging a place that has no average.

Why the hardiness zone does not settle this

A USDA zone is a winter-minimum statistic. It was never a growing-season one, and it does not behave like one: within a single zone the growing season runs a median 54 days wider at the 10th–90th percentile, and annual growing degree days vary by 2.02×.

The zones also overlap rather than stack — 30% of zone 6b freezes before the median zone 6a station. The zone tells you what survives your winter; the station tells you what finishes before your autumn.

The whole dataset behind that →

All 4 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 4 NOAA stations serving this county counts March 16 – November 11 as growing season (240 days). Widening to any single station gives March 8 – November 20 (257 days).

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze March 8 – March 16

First fall freeze November 11 – November 20

Across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 241–255 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 89.8–91.6 °F in June–August. That is past the point where tomato and pepper pollen fails and cool-season greens bolt, so in this county heat decides as much as frost does. Summer rain over the same months runs 10.7–12.2" across those 4 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 85% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 91 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Sunflower County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
38736	8b	Cleveland, MS	21.1 km
38737	8b	Cleveland 3 N, MS	21.3 km
38738	8b	Cleveland 3 N, MS	22.6 km
38751	8b	Moorhead, MS	15.3 km
38753	8b	Moorhead, MS	13.3 km
38761	8b	Moorhead, MS	4.5 km
38768	8b	Clarksdale, MS	25.1 km
38771	8b	Cleveland 3 N, MS	18.6 km
38778	8b	Moorhead, MS	11.4 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Sunflower County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 4 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	January 11 – January 19	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	January 11 – January 19	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	January 25 – February 2	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	February 1 – February 9	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	February 1 – February 9	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	February 1 – February 9	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	February 8 – February 16	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	February 15 – February 23	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	February 22 – March 2	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	February 22 – March 2	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	February 22 – March 2	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	February 22 – March 2	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	February 22 – March 2	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	February 22 – March 2	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	February 22 – March 2	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	March 1 – March 9	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	March 15 – March 23	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	March 22 – March 30	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	March 22 – March 30	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	March 22 – March 30	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	March 22 – March 30	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	March 22 – March 30	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	March 22 – March 30	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What lives through a zone 8b winter

Of 74 perennial edibles, 54 come through a zone 8b winter — and 11 fail here for being too warm rather than too cold, needing more winter chill than this county gets or more heat than they tolerate. Among the ones that work: Apple, Aronia, Elderberry, Asparagus, Horseradish, Sunchoke, Walking Onion, Chives.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to April 3 to be careful. Median March 8 – March 16 across 4 stations; February 17 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to October 28 to be careful. Median November 11 – November 20 across 4 stations; December 9 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 4 stations behind these numbers

All 4 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 82 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Clarksdale, MS	USC00221707	March 16	November 12	243 days
Cleveland 3 N, MS	USC00221743	March 15	November 11	241 days
Cleveland, MS	USC00221738	March 14	November 15	248 days
Moorhead, MS	USC00226009	March 8	November 20	255 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Sunflower County sits in Mississippi. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of Mississippi

Counties with the same zones — 8b

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Shade clothSummer highs here average 91 °F, at or above the 90 °F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.