Whitley County, in Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Whitley 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
Whitley County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Whitley 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 Whitley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Whitley County — the short answer
Whitley County, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 280K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 280K 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 Whitley County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whitley County's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Whitley County
Across a year, Whitley County accumulates about 3,564 growing degree days above 50°F, about 96 fewer than the middle Kentucky county — ahead of 34 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 Whitley County
Across Whitley County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Shelocta, Latham, and Sequoia 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 B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
5%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Whitley County
The USDA soil survey maps 83% of Whitley County as well drained — but another 15% drains differently: 9% moderately well drained, 4% somewhat poorly drained.
Shelocta is the most extensive named soil at 35% of mapped acres, then Latham (13%) and Sequoia (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 Whitley County
Each reading below is measured for Whitley 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 Whitley 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 Whitley 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
MeasuredWhitley County runs about 216 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
MeasuredWhitley 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 Whitley County is in
Whitley County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Appalachians (62%) and Southwestern Appalachians (38%). 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 Whitley County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Whitley County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 216-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 Whitley 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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Whitley County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Whitley County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 107 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly52 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Whitley County
USGS estimates 2,770 lb of Atrazine on Whitley County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,412 lb) and 2,4-d (1,827 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 Whitley County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Whitley County — 173 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 Whitley 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 Whitley County
Closest first, across Whitley County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Toms SonocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Butchs IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Stop & SaveUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Interstate BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Williamsburg City GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Homer B DavisUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Goins MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Williamsburg Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- South Central Wlbgkyma Re 52184Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Whitley Co Maintenance GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Combs Fuels IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- University of the CumberlandsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whitley 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 Whitley County.
Total Sites
173
across Whitley County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Whitley County
Severity Distribution
across Whitley County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whitley County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 148 sites across Whitley 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 Whitley 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 Whitley County average
Your land is one point inside Whitley County
Everything above resolves to Whitley County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 280K 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 Whitley County Average
Whitley County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Whitley County
- ●One soil character for all of Whitley County
- ●Frost dates read at Whitley County's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whitley County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Whitley County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whitley County, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whitley County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whitley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whitley County average
How we know this about Whitley 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 Whitley County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Whitley County
When does frost risk typically end in Whitley County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whitley County typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Whitley County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whitley County sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 18, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whitley County?
The federal record around Whitley County is a meaningful one — 173 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (148), 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 Whitley County's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whitley 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 Whitley County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Whitley County's own scale — its own ~216-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 173 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whitley County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Whitley County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Whitley CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 173 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
- Whitley County's boundary and the 280,269 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Whitley County spans, Central Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Whitley County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Whitley 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 Whitley County — the ~216 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 Whitley County's 280,269 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 173 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 Whitley Countyread your own land →