Madisonville, 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.
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.
Even in Madisonville, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Madisonville lot. 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 Madisonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Madisonville — the short answer
Madisonville, Kentucky: USDA zone 7a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Madisonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madisonville's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madisonville
Each reading below is measured for Madisonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMadisonville runs about 233 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
MeasuredMadisonville 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 Madisonville is in
Madisonville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Madisonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hopkins County.
What Grows in Madisonville
Every plant below cleared Madisonville's own zone 7a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madisonville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Madisonville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Madisonville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 93 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Madisonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madisonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Madisonville Bulk Plant 037Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Southern States MadisonvilleUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- E Z Shop No 5Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Chis Wash & Vac LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6377Brownfields · 1500 ft
- CVS Pharmacy #6377Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Ahlstrom-Munksjo Filtration LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Mccoy Management ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- AHLSTROM FILTRATION LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- AHLSTROM FILTRATION LLCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Ideal No 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madisonville'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 Madisonville.
Total Sites
263
within ~10 miles of Madisonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madisonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madisonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madisonville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 189 sites within ~10 miles of Madisonville. 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 Madisonville
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 Madisonville average
Your land is one point inside Madisonville
Everything above resolves to Madisonville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Madisonville Average
Madisonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Madisonville
- ●One soil character for all of Madisonville
- ●Frost dates read at Madisonville's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madisonville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madisonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madisonville, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madisonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madisonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madisonville average
How we know this about Madisonville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Madisonville’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Madisonville
When does frost risk typically end in Madisonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madisonville typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Madisonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madisonville typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madisonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madisonville sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madisonville?
The federal record around Madisonville is a meaningful one — 263 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (189), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Madisonville?
From about Oct 12 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Madisonville's scale — its 7a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madisonville's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Madisonville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Madisonville's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,435 acres it covers and 263 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madisonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madisonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 11 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 263 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madisonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madisonville's boundary and the 11,435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Madisonville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Madisonville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Madisonville's 11,435 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hopkins County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hopkins County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hopkins County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Madisonville's 11,435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madisonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,435 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Madisonville-wide figureread your own land →