West Pocomoke, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Pocomoke, 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 West Pocomoke 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 West Pocomoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Pocomoke — the short answer
West Pocomoke, Maryland: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 West Pocomoke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Pocomoke's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
West Pocomoke's own 30-year record measures about 233 days between 28°F killing freezes — 31 days shorter than Somerset County's ~264. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against West Pocomoke's ~233-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Pocomoke
Each reading below is measured for West Pocomoke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Pocomoke 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
MeasuredWest Pocomoke 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 West Pocomoke is in
West Pocomoke sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Pocomoke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in West Pocomoke
Every plant below cleared West Pocomoke'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 West Pocomoke?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 West Pocomoke
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from West Pocomoke, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Pocomoke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Pocomoke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Corbins MeatUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- A & J FARMCAFO · 0.7 mi
- Beauchamp PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DAVID HOFFMANCAFO · 0.7 mi
- CHAR-LEE FARMCAFO · 0.8 mi
- THAN HUU FARMCAFO · 1.2 mi
- Choptank Electric Coopertive, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Somerset Packing Co. Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Pocomoke Tru BluUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- VINA CAO FARMCAFO · 1.4 mi
- River MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SELBY SIGN CO INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Pocomoke'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 West Pocomoke.
Total Sites
339
within ~10 miles of West Pocomoke
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Pocomoke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Pocomoke
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Pocomoke, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 132 sites within ~10 miles of West Pocomoke. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 West Pocomoke
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 West Pocomoke average
Your land is one point inside West Pocomoke
Everything above resolves to West Pocomoke as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 West Pocomoke Average
West Pocomoke Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across West Pocomoke
- ●One soil character for all of West Pocomoke
- ●Frost dates read at West Pocomoke's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Pocomoke's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Pocomoke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Pocomoke, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Pocomoke averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Pocomoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Pocomoke average
How we know this about West Pocomoke
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 West Pocomoke’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 West Pocomoke
When does frost risk typically end in West Pocomoke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Pocomoke typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in West Pocomoke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Pocomoke typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Pocomoke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Pocomoke sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 30, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Pocomoke?
The federal record around West Pocomoke is a meaningful one — 339 documented sites, mostly CAFO entries (132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 West Pocomoke?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Pocomoke's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Pocomoke'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 West Pocomoke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Pocomoke's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,020 acres it covers and 339 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Pocomoke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Pocomoke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 13 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 339 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Pocomoke, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Pocomoke's boundary and the 6,020 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 West Pocomoke's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of West Pocomokelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Pocomoke's 6,020 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Pocomoke's 6,020 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Pocomoke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,020 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 West Pocomoke-wide figureread your own land →