Nanticoke, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Nanticoke, 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 Nanticoke 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 Nanticoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nanticoke — the short answer
Nanticoke, Maryland: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8a is Nanticoke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nanticoke's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nanticoke
Each reading below is measured for Nanticoke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNanticoke runs about 264 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNanticoke sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Nanticoke is in
Nanticoke sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nanticoke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wicomico County.
What Grows in Nanticoke
Every plant below cleared Nanticoke's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nanticoke?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Nanticoke
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Nanticoke, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Nanticoke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nanticoke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EARL BEARDSLEY FARMCAFO · 0.9 mi
- THURMAN FARMSCAFO · 1.0 mi
- Petro PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WI Db 2Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- J.B.J. Inc. T/A Wade's Repair ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Ellis Bay Packing Co. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Westside HardwareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Pace ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ANTHONY E. BALCERZAK JR./BIG BIVALVECAFO · 2.6 mi
- WEST ACRESCAFO · 2.7 mi
- HARRY J. WEST IIICAFO · 3.4 mi
- Cox's Grocery (Arlie Kiser)Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nanticoke'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 Nanticoke.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Nanticoke
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
19 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nanticoke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nanticoke
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nanticoke, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Nanticoke. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Nanticoke
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 Nanticoke average
Your land is one point inside Nanticoke
Everything above resolves to Nanticoke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Nanticoke Average
Nanticoke Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Nanticoke
- ●One soil character for all of Nanticoke
- ●Frost dates read at Nanticoke's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nanticoke's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nanticoke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nanticoke, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nanticoke averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nanticoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nanticoke average
How we know this about Nanticoke
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 Nanticoke’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 Nanticoke
When does frost risk typically end in Nanticoke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nanticoke typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Nanticoke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nanticoke typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nanticoke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nanticoke sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 16, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nanticoke?
The federal record around Nanticoke shows 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest CAFO record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Nanticoke?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nanticoke's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nanticoke'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 Nanticoke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Nanticoke's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,681 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nanticoke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nanticoke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 30 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nanticoke, the closest CAFO record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nanticoke's boundary and the 1,681 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nanticoke's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Nanticokelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nanticoke's 1,681 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wicomico County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wicomico 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 Wicomico County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nanticoke's 1,681 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nanticoke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,681 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.9 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 Nanticoke-wide figureread your own land →