Elliott County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Elliott County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Elliott County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Elliott 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 Elliott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elliott County — the short answer
Elliott County, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 150K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 150K 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 6b is Elliott County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elliott County's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Elliott County
Across a year, Elliott County accumulates about 3,333 growing degree days above 50°F, about 327 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 3 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Elliott County
Across Elliott County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Shelocta, Gilpin, and Blairton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–6.4, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Elliott County
The USDA soil survey maps 85% of Elliott County as well drained — but another 14% drains differently: 13% moderately well drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Shelocta is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Gilpin (19%) and Blairton (9%).
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 Elliott County
Each reading below is measured for Elliott 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 Elliott County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Elliott County runs about pH 5.0–6.4, 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
MeasuredElliott County runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredElliott County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Elliott County is in
Elliott County sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Elliott County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Elliott County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 196-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 Elliott County?
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 Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Elliott County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Elliott County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 101 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Elliott County
USGS estimates 1,512 lb of 2,4-d on Elliott County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (688 lb) and Atrazine (556 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 Elliott County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Elliott County — 55 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Elliott 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 Elliott County
Closest first, across Elliott County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Elliott Co State Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Millers Self ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Flannery GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ashland Branded Marketing 266 081 0232Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Route 7 Truck Stop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Hilltop Apostolic ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Horton Ashland OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Rt 7 & 32 Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Lakeside Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KENTUCKY CORRECTIONAL INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Three Warne Pennies LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- J & W MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elliott 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 Elliott County.
Severity Distribution
across Elliott County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elliott County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 43 sites across Elliott County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Elliott 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 Elliott County average
Your land is one point inside Elliott County
Everything above resolves to Elliott County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 150K 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 Elliott County Average
Elliott County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Elliott County
- ●One soil character for all of Elliott County
- ●Frost dates read at Elliott County's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elliott County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Elliott County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elliott County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elliott County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elliott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elliott County average
How we know this about Elliott 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 Elliott County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Elliott County
When does frost risk typically end in Elliott County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elliott County typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
How long is the growing season in Elliott County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elliott County sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elliott County?
The federal record around Elliott County shows 55 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Elliott County's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elliott 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 Elliott County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Elliott County's own scale — its own ~196-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 55 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elliott County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elliott County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Elliott CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 55 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Elliott County's boundary and the 149,965 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Elliott County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Elliott 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 Elliott County — the ~196 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 Elliott County's 149,965 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 55 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 Elliott Countyread your own land →