Cherry Branch, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cherry Branch, 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 Cherry Branch 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 Cherry Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cherry Branch — the short answer
Cherry Branch, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 735 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Craven County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Craven County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Craven County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 735 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Craven County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cherry Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cherry Branch's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cherry Branch
Each reading below is measured for Cherry Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCherry Branch runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Craven County, the closest normal to Cherry Branch) — 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
MeasuredCherry Branch sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Cherry Branch is in
Cherry Branch sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cherry Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Craven County.
What Grows in Cherry Branch
Every plant below cleared Cherry Branch's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cherry Branch?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Cherry Branch
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cherry Branch checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cherry Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cherry Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHERRY BRANCH FERRY OPERATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CR-680Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- NR39MP0-SNitrate · 1.4 mi
- ONE ON ONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CR-631 WELLPOINT NR12Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- CR-628 WELLPOINT NR8Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- TOWN OF MINNESOTT BEACHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CR-645 WELLPOINT NR25Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- CR-647 WELLPOINT NR27Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- CHERRY POINT AIR STATION FAMILY HOUSINGBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- MINNESOTT BEACH YACHT BASIN, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- NR40MP0-SNitrate · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cherry Branch'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 Cherry Branch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cherry Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cherry Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cherry Branch, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 138 sites within ~10 miles of Cherry Branch. 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 Cherry Branch
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 Cherry Branch average
Your land is one point inside Cherry Branch
Everything above resolves to Cherry Branch as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 735 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Craven County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Cherry Branch Average
Cherry Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cherry Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Cherry Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Cherry Branch's scale: Mar 3 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cherry Branch's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cherry Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cherry Branch, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cherry Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cherry Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cherry Branch average
How we know this about Cherry Branch
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 Craven County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Cherry Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Cherry Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Branch typically lands around Mar 3, 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 Mar 24.
When is the first frost in Cherry Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Branch typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cherry Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cherry Branch sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 19, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cherry Branch?
The federal record around Cherry Branch is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (138), 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 Cherry Branch?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cherry Branch's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cherry Branch'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 Cherry Branch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cherry Branch's own scale — the 735 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cherry Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cherry Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cherry Branch's boundary and the 735 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cherry Branch's own centroid, the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cherry Branch checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cherry Branch has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Craven County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cherry Branch's 735 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Craven County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Craven County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Craven County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cherry Branch's 735 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cherry Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 735 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 Cherry Branch-wide figureread your own land →
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