McCracken County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
McCracken County lies within the Jackson Purchase (Far Western Kentucky) and 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
McCracken County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across McCracken 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 McCracken County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McCracken County — the short answer
McCracken County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 159K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 159K 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 McCracken County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCracken County's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in McCracken County
Across a year, McCracken County accumulates about 4,227 growing degree days above 50°F, about 567 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 110 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 2,404 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 McCracken County
Across McCracken County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Grenada, Calloway, and Loring are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.6–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
21%
Hydric soils
21%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across McCracken County
The USDA soil survey maps 33% of McCracken County as moderately well drained — but another 55% drains differently: 21% somewhat poorly drained, 18% poorly drained.
Grenada is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Calloway (10%) and Loring (8%).
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 McCracken County
Each reading below is measured for McCracken 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 McCracken 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 McCracken County runs about pH 5.6–6.5, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 21% of McCracken 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
MeasuredMcCracken 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
The kind of country McCracken County is in
McCracken County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (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 McCracken County
We scored all 1,086 plants against McCracken 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 McCracken 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 Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around McCracken County
- monarch butterfly526 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in McCracken County
USGS estimates 89,081 lb of Glyphosate on McCracken County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (28,533 lb) and Atrazine (25,108 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 McCracken County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across McCracken County — 500 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Superfund sites. 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 McCracken 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 McCracken County
Closest first, across McCracken County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Country Club of PaducahUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Paducah Kentucky TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Turner Dairy IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Parcel 70 Item No 1-290.01Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Minit Mart 24Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- B G Waid ConstUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Hucks #377Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Claytons Corner ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Star Stop #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LOWE'S COMPANIES #465Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- Five Star #7625Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Purcell/Goodyear Tire-ExpansionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCracken 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 McCracken County.
Sources Checked
across McCracken County
Severity Distribution
across McCracken County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McCracken County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 361 sites across McCracken County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 McCracken 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 McCracken County average
Your land is one point inside McCracken County
Everything above resolves to McCracken County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 159K 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 McCracken County Average
McCracken County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across McCracken County
- ●One soil character for all of McCracken County
- ●Frost dates read at McCracken County's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCracken County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in McCracken County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCracken County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCracken County averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCracken County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCracken County average
How we know this about McCracken 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 McCracken County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about McCracken County
When does frost risk typically end in McCracken County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCracken County typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in McCracken County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCracken County sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 29, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCracken County?
The federal record around McCracken County is a meaningful one — 500 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (361), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 McCracken County's scale — its 7a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCracken 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 McCracken County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at McCracken County's own scale — its own ~236-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 500 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCracken County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCracken 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 McCracken CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 500 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- McCracken County's boundary and the 159,229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions McCracken County spans, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in McCracken County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto McCracken 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 McCracken 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 McCracken County's 159,229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 500 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 McCracken Countyread your own land →