Rockcastle 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Rockcastle County lies within the Cumberland Plateau and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Rockcastle County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rockcastle County — the short answer
Rockcastle County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 203K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 203K 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 Rockcastle County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rockcastle County's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Rockcastle County
Across a year, Rockcastle County accumulates about 3,583 growing degree days above 50°F, about 77 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 39 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 Rockcastle County
Across Rockcastle County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Shelocta, Latham, and Weikert are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Rockcastle County
The USDA soil survey maps 77% of Rockcastle County as well drained — but another 23% drains differently: 10% moderately well drained, 8% somewhat excessively drained.
Shelocta is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Latham (10%) and Weikert (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 Rockcastle County
Each reading below is measured for Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County runs about pH 5.0–6.3, 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
MeasuredRockcastle County runs about 213 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
MeasuredRockcastle 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 Rockcastle County is in
Rockcastle County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southwestern Appalachians (57%) and Interior Plateau (41%). 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 Rockcastle County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Rockcastle County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 213-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 Rockcastle 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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Rockcastle County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rockcastle County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 99 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Rockcastle County
USGS estimates 13,962 lb of Glyphosate on Rockcastle County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (7,576 lb) and 2,4-d (2,540 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 Rockcastle County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Rockcastle County — 100 documented sites across 5 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 Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County
Closest first, across Rockcastle County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Minit Mart #660Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Mount Vernon #160Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MT VERNON WATER WORKSPFAS · 0.6 mi
- Pegs Food Mart IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Headquarters For Hair DesignUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Hwy 25 Cleanup ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Mount Vernon Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Bishop Tire ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Renfro Valley Foodmart #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Burr ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Rockcastle Co State Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Conway Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County.
Total Sites
100
across Rockcastle County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Rockcastle County
Severity Distribution
across Rockcastle County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rockcastle County, two things run higher than the national average across Rockcastle County — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (84 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County average
Your land is one point inside Rockcastle County
Everything above resolves to Rockcastle County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 203K 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 Rockcastle County Average
Rockcastle County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rockcastle County
- ●One soil character for all of Rockcastle County
- ●Frost dates read at Rockcastle County's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rockcastle County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Rockcastle County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rockcastle County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rockcastle County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rockcastle County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rockcastle County average
How we know this about Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Rockcastle County
When does frost risk typically end in Rockcastle County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rockcastle County typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Rockcastle County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rockcastle County sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rockcastle County?
The federal record around Rockcastle County is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Rockcastle County's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Rockcastle County's own scale — its own ~213-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 100 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rockcastle County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rockcastle County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Rockcastle CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 100 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Rockcastle County's boundary and the 202,603 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Rockcastle County spans, Southwestern Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Rockcastle 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 Rockcastle County — the ~213 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 Rockcastle County's 202,603 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 100 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 Rockcastle Countyread your own land →