Knott 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Knott 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
Knott County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Knott 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 Knott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Knott County — the short answer
Knott County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 225K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 225K 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 Knott County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Knott County's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Knott County
Across a year, Knott County accumulates about 3,584 growing degree days above 50°F, about 76 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 41 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 Knott County
Across Knott County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Shelocta, Kimper, and Gilpin 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 A soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Knott County
Shelocta is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Kimper (9%) and Gilpin (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 Knott County
Each reading below is measured for Knott 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 Knott County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Knott 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
MeasuredKnott County runs about 236 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
MeasuredKnott 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 Knott County is in
Knott County sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Knott County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Knott County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 236-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 Knott County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Knott County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Knott County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Knott County
USGS estimates 383 lb of 2,4-d on Knott County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (84 lb) and Triclopyr (32 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 Knott County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Knott County — 98 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Knott 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 Knott County
Closest first, across Knott County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wm Thacker GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Sid Williams ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Hindman BP ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Hindman 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Garner Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Hayes GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Hindman Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Lakeway MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Ds Stop N ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Rogers Auto MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Fields DrillingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- H28C0011Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Knott 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 Knott County.
Total Sites
98
across Knott County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Knott County
Severity Distribution
across Knott County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Knott County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 87 sites across Knott County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Knott 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 Knott County average
Your land is one point inside Knott County
Everything above resolves to Knott County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 225K 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 Knott County Average
Knott County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Knott County
- ●One soil character for all of Knott County
- ●Frost dates read at Knott County's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Knott County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Knott County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Knott County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Knott County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Knott County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Knott County average
How we know this about Knott 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 Knott County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Knott County
When does frost risk typically end in Knott County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Knott County typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
How long is the growing season in Knott County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Knott County sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 1, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Knott County?
The federal record around Knott County shows 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Knott County's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Knott 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 Knott County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Knott County's own scale — its own ~236-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 98 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Knott County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Knott County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Knott CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 98 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
- Knott County's boundary and the 224,975 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Knott County sitting wholly inside the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Knott 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 Knott County — the ~236 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 Knott County's 224,975 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 98 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 Knott Countyread your own land →