Quantico, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Quantico, 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 Quantico 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 Quantico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Quantico — the short answer
Quantico, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Quantico's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quantico's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Quantico
Each reading below is measured for Quantico itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredQuantico runs about 236 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
MeasuredQuantico 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 Quantico is in
Quantico sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Quantico's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wicomico County.
What Grows in Quantico
Every plant below cleared Quantico's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Quantico?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 — 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 Quantico
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Quantico, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Quantico
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Quantico. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S&H FARMSToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- JAMES RYAN BURTON/TRUE GRIT FARMCAFO · 1.3 mi
- WET BOTTOM FARMCAFO · 2.0 mi
- PARVAR INC./ALLEN BANK FARMCAFO · 2.0 mi
- BURNS FARMCAFO · 2.2 mi
- TOM NEAL CAFO (D/B/A BURNS FARM)CAFO · 2.3 mi
- Poplar Hill Pre-Release UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- EDWARD SZEWCZYK/RED RIVER FARMCAFO · 2.7 mi
- GREEN HILL YACHT& COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Green Hill Yacht & Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Lewrenza Byd & SonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- OVEREASY AND KATHYS TOO FARMSCAFO · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Quantico'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 Quantico.
Total Sites
659
within ~10 miles of Quantico
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Quantico
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Quantico
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Quantico, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Quantico. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Quantico
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 Quantico average
Your land is one point inside Quantico
Everything above resolves to Quantico as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Quantico Average
Quantico Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Quantico
- ●One soil character for all of Quantico
- ●Frost dates read at Quantico's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quantico's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Quantico
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quantico, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quantico averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quantico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quantico average
How we know this about Quantico
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 Quantico’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 Quantico
When does frost risk typically end in Quantico?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quantico 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 Quantico?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Quantico typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Quantico?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quantico sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 1, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quantico?
The federal record around Quantico is a meaningful one — 659 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (355), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.0 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 Quantico?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Quantico's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quantico'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 Quantico’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Quantico's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,348 acres it covers and 659 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quantico's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Quantico's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 15 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 659 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Quantico, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Quantico's boundary and the 1,348 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Quantico's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Quanticolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Quantico's 1,348 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 Quantico's 1,348 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Quantico you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,348 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.0 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 Quantico-wide figureread your own land →