Mason County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Mason 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
Mason County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Mason 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 Mason County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mason County — the short answer
Mason County, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 154K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 154K 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 Mason County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mason County's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Mason County
Across a year, Mason County accumulates about 3,461 growing degree days above 50°F, about 199 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 11 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 Mason County
Across Mason County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Lowell, Eden, and Faywood are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–6.2, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Mason County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Mason County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 5% moderately well drained.
Lowell is the most extensive named soil at 38% of mapped acres, then Eden (18%) and Faywood (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 Mason County
Each reading below is measured for Mason 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 Mason 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 Mason County runs about pH 6.1–6.2, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMason County runs about 220 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
MeasuredMason 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 Mason County is in
Mason County sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Mason County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Mason County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 220-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 Mason County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Mason County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mason County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Mason County
USGS estimates 23,104 lb of Glyphosate on Mason County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (9,743 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (6,727 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 Mason County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Mason County — 152 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Mason 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 Mason County
Closest first, across Mason County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Arnold Distributing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Manley Auto SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Hilltop Ford IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BUTLER RECYCLINGToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- Colonial Heights Veterinary ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Hucks Farm SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Washington 1st Stop No 35Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Washington No 484Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Ashland BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Mason Co State Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Maysville Community CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MAYSVILLE UTILITY COMMISSIONPFAS · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mason 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 Mason County.
Total Sites
152
across Mason County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Mason County
Severity Distribution
across Mason County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mason County, two things run higher than the national average across Mason County — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mason 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 Mason County average
Your land is one point inside Mason County
Everything above resolves to Mason County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 154K 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 Mason County Average
Mason County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mason County
- ●One soil character for all of Mason County
- ●Frost dates read at Mason County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mason County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Mason County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mason County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mason County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mason County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mason County average
How we know this about Mason 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 Mason County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Mason County
When does frost risk typically end in Mason County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mason County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Mason County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mason County sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 25, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mason County?
The federal record around Mason County is a meaningful one — 152 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (110), 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 Mason County's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mason 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 Mason County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Mason County's own scale — its own ~220-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 152 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mason County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mason County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Mason CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 152 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
- Mason County's boundary and the 153,681 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mason County sitting wholly inside the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Mason 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 Mason County — the ~220 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 Mason County's 153,681 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 152 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 Mason Countyread your own land →