Aquasco, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Aquasco, 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 Aquasco 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 Aquasco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Aquasco — the short answer
Aquasco, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 13K 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 7b is Aquasco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Aquasco's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Aquasco
Each reading below is measured for Aquasco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAquasco 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
MeasuredAquasco sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Aquasco is in
Aquasco sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Aquasco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Prince George's County.
What Grows in Aquasco
Every plant below cleared Aquasco's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Aquasco?
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 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 12 — 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 Aquasco
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Aquasco, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Aquasco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Aquasco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 02-1582290Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Little StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PG Gf 1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- William GoadUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Grimes Market LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CA Da 3Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- Aquasco SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CA Ca 8Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- CA Ca 2Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- PG Hf 49Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- PG Hf 46Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- PG Hf 43Nitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Aquasco'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 Aquasco.
Total Sites
380
within ~10 miles of Aquasco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Aquasco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Aquasco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Aquasco, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 118 sites within ~10 miles of Aquasco. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Aquasco
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 Aquasco average
Your land is one point inside Aquasco
Everything above resolves to Aquasco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 town 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 Aquasco Average
Aquasco Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Aquasco
- ●One soil character for all of Aquasco
- ●Frost dates read at Aquasco's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Aquasco's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Aquasco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Aquasco, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Aquasco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Aquasco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Aquasco average
How we know this about Aquasco
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Aquasco’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Aquasco
When does frost risk typically end in Aquasco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Aquasco 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.
When is the first frost in Aquasco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Aquasco typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Aquasco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Aquasco sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 29, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Aquasco?
The federal record around Aquasco is a meaningful one — 380 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (190), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Aquasco?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Aquasco's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Aquasco'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 Aquasco’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Aquasco's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,650 acres it covers and 380 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Aquasco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Aquasco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 12 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 380 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Aquasco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Aquasco's boundary and the 12,650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Aquasco's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Aquascolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Aquasco's 12,650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince George's County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince George's County
- The growing challenges every Maryland grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maryland
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Prince George's County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Aquasco's 12,650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Aquasco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,650 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Aquasco-wide figureread your own land →
More in Maryland
Wider growing context
What grows across MarylandAquasco sits outside our named growing regions, so Maryland as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides