Moore County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Moore 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
Moore County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Moore 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 Moore County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moore County — the short answer
Moore County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 446K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 446K 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 Moore County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moore County's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Moore County
Across a year, Moore County accumulates about 4,621 growing degree days above 50°F, about 231 more than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 63 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 1,658 hours below 45°F, 105 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 Moore County
Across Moore County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Candor, Ailey, and Nanford 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 B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Moore County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Moore County as well drained — but another 38% drains differently: 17% somewhat excessively drained, 14% moderately well drained.
Candor is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Ailey (14%) and Nanford (11%).
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 Moore County
Each reading below is measured for Moore 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 Moore County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Moore 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
Season length
MeasuredMoore County runs about 247 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
MeasuredMoore County 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 Moore County is in
Moore County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (58%) and Piedmont (42%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Moore County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Moore County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 247-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 Moore County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 18 — 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 Moore County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Moore County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 52 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Moore County
USGS estimates 6,995 lb of Glyphosate on Moore County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,672 lb) and Metolachlor-s (3,287 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 Moore County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Moore County — 402 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Moore County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Moore County
Closest first, across Moore County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THOMAS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PINEHURST BLACKSMITH SHOP, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- PHILLIPS MOTOR CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- CC&PS, DIV. OF STATE HWY. PATROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- COX 15-501 CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- BOISE CAS. SOUTHERN PINES DIS OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- EASTWOOD FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- SDZ VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- MOORE COUNTY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- MOORE COUNTY SCHOOLS ADMINISTRATUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- HILLCREST COMMUNITY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- CIRCLE K 2723842Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moore 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 Moore County.
Sources Checked
across Moore County
Severity Distribution
across Moore County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moore County, two things run higher than the national average across Moore County — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Moore 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 Moore County average
Your land is one point inside Moore County
Everything above resolves to Moore County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 446K 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 Moore County Average
Moore County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Moore County
- ●One soil character for all of Moore County
- ●Frost dates read at Moore County's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moore County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Moore County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moore County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moore County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moore County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moore County average
How we know this about Moore 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 Moore County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Moore County
When does frost risk typically end in Moore County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moore 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 Moore County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moore County sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 4, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moore County?
The federal record around Moore County runs heavier than most — 402 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (275), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Moore County's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moore 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 Moore County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Moore County's own scale — its own ~247-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 402 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moore County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moore County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Moore CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 402 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Moore County's boundary and the 446,481 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Moore County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Moore County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Moore 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 Moore County — the ~247 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 Moore County's 446,481 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 402 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 Moore Countyread your own land →