Hoke County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Hoke County lies within the Carolina Sandhills — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hoke County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hoke County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Hoke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hoke County — the short answer
Hoke County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 250K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 250K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Hoke County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hoke County's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hoke County
Across a year, Hoke County accumulates about 4,909 growing degree days above 50°F, about 519 more than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 82 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,544 hours below 45°F, 219 fewer than the North Carolina middle of 1,763. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Hoke County
Across Hoke County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Blaney, Candor, and Johnston are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
19%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hoke County
The USDA soil survey maps 53% of Hoke County as well drained — but another 46% drains differently: 13% somewhat excessively drained, 10% very poorly drained.
Blaney is the most extensive named soil at 27% of mapped acres, then Candor (12%) and Johnston (9%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Hoke County
Each reading below is measured for Hoke County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Hoke County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hoke County runs about pH 4.8–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 19% of Hoke County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHoke County runs about 248 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
The kind of country Hoke County is in
Hoke County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Hoke County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hoke County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 248-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile.
Is it too late to plant in Hoke County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Hoke County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hoke County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 69 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Hoke County
USGS estimates 35,997 lb of Glyphosate on Hoke County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (11,994 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (11,211 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Hoke County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hoke County — 133 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Hoke County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hoke County
Closest first, across Hoke County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCMILLAN FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RAEFORD QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NC DOT-RAEFORD/HOKE(DIV EIGHT)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MACKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HOWARD'S DAYTONAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES RAEFORD FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES RAEFORD FACILITYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY #7903Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- RAEFORD, CITY OFPFAS · 2.0 mi
- HOKE CO REGIONAL WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 2.0 mi
- HOKE CO REGIONAL--ROCKFISHPFAS · 2.0 mi
- LUCKY 7 EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hoke County'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 Hoke County.
Total Sites
133
across Hoke County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Hoke County
Severity Distribution
across Hoke County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hoke County, two things run higher than the national average across Hoke County — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hoke County
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 Hoke County average
Your land is one point inside Hoke County
Everything above resolves to Hoke County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 250K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Hoke County Average
Hoke County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hoke County
- ●One soil character for all of Hoke County
- ●Frost dates read at Hoke County's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hoke County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hoke County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hoke County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hoke County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hoke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hoke County average
How we know this about Hoke County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Hoke County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hoke County
When does frost risk typically end in Hoke County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hoke County typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Hoke County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hoke County sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 5, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hoke County?
The federal record around Hoke County is a meaningful one — 133 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Hoke County's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hoke County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads North Carolina's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Hoke County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Hoke County's own scale — its own ~248-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 133 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hoke County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hoke County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hoke CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 133 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hoke County's boundary and the 249,698 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hoke County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hoke County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Hoke County — the ~248 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hoke County's 249,698 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 133 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Hoke Countyread your own land →