Rutherford County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Rutherford County lies within the Piedmont — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Rutherford County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Rutherford 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 Rutherford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rutherford County — the short answer
Rutherford County, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 362K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 362K 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 7b is Rutherford County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rutherford County's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Rutherford County
Across a year, Rutherford County accumulates about 4,196 growing degree days above 50°F, about 194 fewer than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 37 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 1,805 hours below 45°F, 42 more 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 Rutherford County
Across Rutherford County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Pacolet, Evard, and Madison are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Rutherford County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Rutherford County as well drained — but another 9% drains differently: 6% somewhat poorly drained, 2% moderately well drained.
Pacolet is the most extensive named soil at 37% of mapped acres, then Evard (11%) and Madison (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 Rutherford County
Each reading below is measured for Rutherford 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 Rutherford 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 Rutherford County runs about pH 5.3–6.2, 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
MeasuredRutherford County 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
MeasuredRutherford County 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 Rutherford County is in
Rutherford County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Piedmont (74%) and Blue Ridge (26%). 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 Rutherford County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Rutherford County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 233-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 Rutherford County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Rutherford County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rutherford County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Rutherford County
USGS estimates 6,862 lb of 2,4-d on Rutherford County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,620 lb) and Dicamba (940 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 Rutherford County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Rutherford County — 371 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Rutherford 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 Rutherford County
Closest first, across Rutherford County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MT VERNON CUBBARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HUDLOW KWIK MART 110067Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Ellwood MineMining · 1.3 mi
- PARTON LUMBER COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- LITTLE CUBBARD L922Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CATAWBA TIMBER CO.-RUTH WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Alta MineMining · 2.0 mi
- TOWN PUBLIC WORKS DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FRAZIER FORD, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- OIL MASTERSBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- TRELLEBORG PARKING EXPANSIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- TRELLEBORG PARKING EXPANSIONToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rutherford 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 Rutherford County.
Total Sites
371
across Rutherford County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Rutherford County
Severity Distribution
across Rutherford County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rutherford County, two things run higher than the national average across Rutherford County — Toxics Release Inventory (30 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (261 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rutherford 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 Rutherford County average
Your land is one point inside Rutherford County
Everything above resolves to Rutherford County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 362K 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 Rutherford County Average
Rutherford County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Rutherford County
- ●One soil character for all of Rutherford County
- ●Frost dates read at Rutherford County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rutherford County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Rutherford County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rutherford County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rutherford County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rutherford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rutherford County average
How we know this about Rutherford 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 Rutherford County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Rutherford County
When does frost risk typically end in Rutherford County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rutherford County typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Rutherford County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rutherford County sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rutherford County?
The federal record around Rutherford County is a meaningful one — 371 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (261), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Rutherford County's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rutherford 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 Rutherford County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Rutherford County's own scale — its own ~233-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 371 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rutherford County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rutherford County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Rutherford CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 371 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Rutherford County's boundary and the 361,879 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 2 ecoregions Rutherford County spans, Piedmont the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Rutherford County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Rutherford 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 Rutherford County — the ~233 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 Rutherford County's 361,879 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 371 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 Rutherford Countyread your own land →