Corbin, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Corbin, 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 Corbin 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 Corbin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Corbin — the short answer
Corbin, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 7a is Corbin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Corbin's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Corbin
Each reading below is measured for Corbin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCorbin runs about 217 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
MeasuredCorbin sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Corbin is in
Corbin sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Corbin's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Whitley County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Corbin
Every plant below cleared Corbin's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Corbin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Corbin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Corbin checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 106 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Corbin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Corbin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PEPSI-COLA BOTTLING COToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- Pepsi Cola Bottling CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Johnny WheelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Owens Auto Parts IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- KROGER CO - STORE 719Brownfields · 850 ft
- Rainbo Baking CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Kroger Fuel L-719Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Nobles ProduceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Convenient Food Mart 415Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- South Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EZ In & OutUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Bp Quik MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Corbin'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 Corbin.
Total Sites
232
within ~10 miles of Corbin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Corbin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Corbin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Corbin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Corbin — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (182 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Corbin
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 Corbin average
Your land is one point inside Corbin
Everything above resolves to Corbin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 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 Corbin Average
Corbin Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Corbin
- ●One soil character for all of Corbin
- ●Frost dates read at Corbin's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Corbin's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Corbin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Corbin, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Corbin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Corbin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Corbin average
How we know this about Corbin
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 Corbin’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 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 Corbin
When does frost risk typically end in Corbin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Corbin typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Corbin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Corbin typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Corbin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Corbin sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 20, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Corbin?
The federal record around Corbin is a meaningful one — 232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (182), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Corbin?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Corbin's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Corbin'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 Corbin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Corbin's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,086 acres it covers and 232 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Corbin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Corbin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 3 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Corbin, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Corbin's boundary and the 5,086 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Corbin sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Corbin checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Corbin's 5,086 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Whitley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Whitley County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Whitley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Corbin's 5,086 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Corbin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,086 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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 Corbin-wide figureread your own land →
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