Caldwell County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Caldwell County lies within the Pennyroyal / Pennyrile (South-Central Kentucky Karst Plateau) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Caldwell County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Caldwell County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Caldwell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Caldwell County — the short answer
Caldwell County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 221K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 221K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Caldwell County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Caldwell County's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Caldwell County
Across a year, Caldwell County accumulates about 4,209 growing degree days above 50°F, about 549 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 108 of Kentucky’s 120 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,328 hours below 45°F. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Caldwell County
Across Caldwell County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Crider, Zanesville, and Nicholson are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.4–6.0, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
30%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Caldwell County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Caldwell County as well drained — but another 45% drains differently: 38% moderately well drained, 6% somewhat poorly drained.
Crider is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Zanesville (23%) and Nicholson (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Caldwell County
Each reading below is measured for Caldwell County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Caldwell County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Caldwell County runs about pH 5.4–6.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCaldwell County runs about 233 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
MeasuredCaldwell County 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 Caldwell County is in
Caldwell County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior Plateau (67%) and Interior River Valleys and Hills (33%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Caldwell County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Caldwell County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 233-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile.
Is it too late to plant in Caldwell County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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.
Documented around Caldwell County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Caldwell County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 96 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle6 documented records
- monarch butterfly53 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Caldwell County
USGS estimates 130,760 lb of Glyphosate on Caldwell County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (59,756 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (58,892 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Caldwell County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Caldwell County — 124 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Caldwell County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Caldwell County
Closest first, across Caldwell County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRINCETON WATER & SEWER COMMISSIONPFAS · 1.6 mi
- BARKLEY LAKE WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 1.6 mi
- EDDYVILLE WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 1.6 mi
- CALDWELL COUNTY WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 1.6 mi
- Princeton Food Mart 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Neisz GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Yates PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Parkview MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- C & K Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Caldwell Co Schools/Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Varbel PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Parkway BpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Caldwell County'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 Caldwell County.
Total Sites
124
across Caldwell County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Caldwell County
Severity Distribution
across Caldwell County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Caldwell County, two things run higher than the national average across Caldwell County — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (84 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 Caldwell County
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 Caldwell County average
Your land is one point inside Caldwell County
Everything above resolves to Caldwell County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 221K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Caldwell County Average
Caldwell County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Caldwell County
- ●One soil character for all of Caldwell County
- ●Frost dates read at Caldwell County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Caldwell County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Caldwell County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Caldwell County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Caldwell County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Caldwell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Caldwell County average
How we know this about Caldwell County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Caldwell County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Caldwell County
When does frost risk typically end in Caldwell County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Caldwell County typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Caldwell County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Caldwell County sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Caldwell County?
The federal record around Caldwell County shows 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest PFAS record about 1.6 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.
Everything above is measured at Caldwell County's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Caldwell County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Kentucky's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Caldwell County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Caldwell County's own scale — its own ~233-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 124 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Caldwell County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Caldwell County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Caldwell CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 124 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Caldwell County's boundary and the 220,694 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Caldwell County spans, Interior Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Caldwell County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Caldwell County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Caldwell County — the ~233 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Caldwell County's 220,694 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 124 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Caldwell Countyread your own land →