Concord, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Concord, 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 Concord 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 Concord — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Concord — the short answer
Concord, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 41K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- 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
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 41K 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 Concord's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Concord's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Concord
Each reading below is measured for Concord itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConcord runs about 243 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
MeasuredConcord 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 Concord is in
Concord sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Concord's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cabarrus County.
What Grows in Concord
Every plant below cleared Concord's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Concord?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Concord
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Concord, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Concord
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Concord. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S&D COFFEE AND TEA, INC.Brownfields · 1400 ft
- 329656Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PENSKE AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ELI LILLY AND COMPANY - CONCORDBrownfields · 1600 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #1027Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- MODERN NISSAN OF CONCORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TOYOTA OF CONCORDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PHILIP MORRIS USA CABARRUS MANUFACTURING CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- FLAV-O-RICH, INC. CONCORD BRANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HONDA CARS OF CONCORDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MAZDA OF CONCORDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- TROUTMAN MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Concord'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 Concord.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Concord
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Concord
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Concord, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Concord — Superfund (14 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (46 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Concord
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 Concord average
Your land is one point inside Concord
Everything above resolves to Concord as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 41K 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 city 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 Concord Average
Concord Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Concord
- ●One soil character for all of Concord
- ●Frost dates read at Concord's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Concord's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Concord
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Concord, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Concord averages can't show:
We read public map data around Concord — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Concord average
How we know this about Concord
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Concord’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Concord
When does frost risk typically end in Concord?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Concord typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Concord?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Concord 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 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Concord?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Concord sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 1, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Concord?
The federal record around Concord is a meaningful one — 740 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (438), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Concord?
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 Concord's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Concord'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 Concord’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Concord's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 41,409 acres it covers and 740 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Concord's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Concord's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 15 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 740 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Concord, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Concord's boundary and the 41,409 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Concord's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Concordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Concord's 41,409 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cabarrus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cabarrus 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 Cabarrus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Concord's 41,409 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Concord you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 41,409 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Concord-wide figureread your own land →
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