Crittenden 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Crittenden County lies within the Ohio River Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Crittenden County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Crittenden 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 Crittenden County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crittenden County — the short answer
Crittenden County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 230K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 230K 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 Crittenden County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crittenden County's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Crittenden County
Across a year, Crittenden County accumulates about 4,147 growing degree days above 50°F, about 487 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 103 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 2,348 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 Crittenden County
Across Crittenden County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Zanesville, Hosmer, and Frondorf are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–5.9, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
22%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Crittenden County
The USDA soil survey maps 49% of Crittenden County as moderately well drained — but another 48% drains differently: 41% well drained, 6% somewhat poorly drained.
Zanesville is the most extensive named soil at 23% of mapped acres, then Hosmer (17%) and Frondorf (12%).
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 Crittenden County
Each reading below is measured for Crittenden 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 Crittenden County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Crittenden County runs about pH 5.5–5.9, 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
MeasuredCrittenden County runs about 237 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
MeasuredCrittenden 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 Crittenden County is in
Crittenden County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior Plateau (68%) and Interior River Valleys and Hills (32%). 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 Crittenden County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Crittenden County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 237-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 Crittenden 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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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.
Documented around Crittenden County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Crittenden County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 115 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Crittenden County
USGS estimates 77,958 lb of Glyphosate on Crittenden County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (35,786 lb) and Atrazine (32,180 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 Crittenden County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Crittenden County — 122 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Crittenden County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Crittenden County
Closest first, across Crittenden County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Crittendon Co Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Crittenden Co School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Marion Hardwoods IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #6383Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- N Main Tire & Flea MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Crittenden Co HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- The Kentucky Stone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- D & D Auto/Truck Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Ashland Branded Marketing 251 008Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Holloman Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Five Star #6561Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- City Of Marion PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crittenden 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 Crittenden County.
Total Sites
122
across Crittenden County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Crittenden County
Severity Distribution
across Crittenden County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crittenden County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 32 sites across Crittenden County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Crittenden 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 Crittenden County average
Your land is one point inside Crittenden County
Everything above resolves to Crittenden County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 230K 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 Crittenden County Average
Crittenden County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Crittenden County
- ●One soil character for all of Crittenden County
- ●Frost dates read at Crittenden County's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crittenden County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Crittenden County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crittenden County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crittenden County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crittenden County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crittenden County average
How we know this about Crittenden 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 Crittenden County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Crittenden County
When does frost risk typically end in Crittenden County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crittenden County typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
How long is the growing season in Crittenden County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crittenden County sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 29, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crittenden County?
The federal record around Crittenden County runs heavier than most — 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Crittenden County's scale — its 7a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crittenden 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 Crittenden County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Crittenden County's own scale — its own ~237-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 122 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crittenden County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crittenden County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Crittenden CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 122 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Crittenden County's boundary and the 230,122 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Crittenden County spans, Interior Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Crittenden 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 Crittenden County — the ~237 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 Crittenden County's 230,122 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 122 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 Crittenden Countyread your own land →