Hopkins County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Hopkins 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
Hopkins County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hopkins 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 Hopkins County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hopkins County — the short answer
Hopkins County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 347K 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
- 347K 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 Hopkins County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hopkins County's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hopkins County
Across a year, Hopkins County accumulates about 4,241 growing degree days above 50°F, about 581 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 112 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 2,383 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 Hopkins County
Across Hopkins County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Zanesville, Hosmer, and Belknap 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 soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
20%
Hydric soils
16%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hopkins County
The USDA soil survey maps 34% of Hopkins County as moderately well drained — but another 63% drains differently: 32% well drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Zanesville is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Hosmer (12%) and Belknap (11%).
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 Hopkins County
Each reading below is measured for Hopkins 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 Hopkins County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Hopkins 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 16% of Hopkins County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHopkins 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
The kind of country Hopkins County is in
Hopkins County sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Hopkins County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hopkins 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 Hopkins 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. 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 Hopkins County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hopkins County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 92 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly15 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hopkins County
USGS estimates 127,660 lb of Glyphosate on Hopkins County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (59,880 lb) and Atrazine (53,008 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 Hopkins County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hopkins County — 361 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Hopkins County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hopkins County
Closest first, across Hopkins County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ideal Market No 24Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Paul PolleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Madisonville Westside WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- H9D0047Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Nicks Termite & Pest Control IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Pleasant View GreenhouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Ideal Market #24AUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Watseka Potts PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Odd Fellows CemeteryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Monarch ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- METCALFE LANDSCAPING AND GARDEN CENTERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Ideal No 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hopkins 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 Hopkins County.
Total Sites
361
across Hopkins County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Hopkins County
Severity Distribution
across Hopkins County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hopkins County, two things run higher than the national average across Hopkins County — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (238 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 Hopkins 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 Hopkins County average
Your land is one point inside Hopkins County
Everything above resolves to Hopkins County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 347K 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 Hopkins County Average
Hopkins County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Hopkins County
- ●One soil character for all of Hopkins County
- ●Frost dates read at Hopkins County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hopkins County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hopkins County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hopkins County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hopkins County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hopkins County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hopkins County average
How we know this about Hopkins 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 Hopkins County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hopkins County
When does frost risk typically end in Hopkins County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hopkins 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 Hopkins County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hopkins 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 Hopkins County?
The federal record around Hopkins County is a meaningful one — 361 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (238), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Hopkins County's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hopkins 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 Hopkins County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hopkins County's own scale — its own ~233-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 361 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hopkins County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hopkins 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 Hopkins CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 361 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hopkins County's boundary and the 347,088 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hopkins County sitting wholly inside the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hopkins County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hopkins 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 Hopkins 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 Hopkins County's 347,088 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 361 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 Hopkins Countyread your own land →