Webster 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.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Webster County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Webster 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 Webster County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Webster County — the short answer
Webster County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 212K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 212K 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 Webster County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Webster County's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Webster County
Across a year, Webster County accumulates about 4,151 growing degree days above 50°F, about 491 more than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 104 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 2,418 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 Webster County
Across Webster County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Hosmer, Wellston, 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/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
30%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Webster County
The USDA soil survey maps 46% of Webster County as moderately well drained — but another 54% drains differently: 29% well drained, 17% somewhat poorly drained.
Hosmer is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Wellston (13%) and Belknap (13%).
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 Webster County
Each reading below is measured for Webster 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 Webster 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 Webster 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
Season length
MeasuredWebster County runs about 231 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
MeasuredWebster 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 Webster County is in
Webster 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 Webster County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Webster County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 231-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 Webster 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 10 — 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 Webster County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Webster County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 109 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly111 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Webster County
USGS estimates 159,788 lb of Glyphosate on Webster County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (77,758 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (73,353 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 Webster County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Webster County — 125 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Webster 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 Webster County
Closest first, across Webster County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Turner Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Webster Co School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Herman StoneUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Webster County Road Department GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Dixon MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- G9C0022Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Owens PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Webster Co State Maintenance Garage #363Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Buds Cash & CarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Webster Co High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Larry Duncan PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Dixon StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Webster 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 Webster County.
Total Sites
125
across Webster County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Webster County
Severity Distribution
across Webster County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Webster County, two things run higher than the national average across Webster County — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (83 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Webster 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 Webster County average
Your land is one point inside Webster County
Everything above resolves to Webster County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 212K 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 Webster County Average
Webster County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Webster County
- ●One soil character for all of Webster County
- ●Frost dates read at Webster County's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Webster County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Webster County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Webster County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Webster County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Webster County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Webster County average
How we know this about Webster 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 Webster County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Webster County
When does frost risk typically end in Webster County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Webster 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 Webster County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Webster County sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Webster County?
The federal record around Webster County is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Webster County's scale — its 7a band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Webster 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 Webster County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Webster County's own scale — its own ~231-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 125 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Webster County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Webster County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Webster CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 125 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Webster County's boundary and the 212,497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Webster County sitting wholly inside the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Webster County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Webster 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 Webster County — the ~231 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 Webster County's 212,497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 125 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 Webster Countyread your own land →