Sampson 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.
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.
Sampson County lies within the North Carolina Inner Coastal Plain (Eastern NC row-crop belt) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Sampson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sampson 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 Sampson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sampson County — the short answer
Sampson County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 605K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 605K 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 Sampson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sampson County's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Sampson County
Across a year, Sampson County accumulates about 4,869 growing degree days above 50°F, about 479 more than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 79 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 1,486 hours below 45°F, 277 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 Sampson County
Across Sampson County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Norfolk, Wagram, and Rains are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
36%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sampson County
The USDA soil survey maps 40% of Sampson County as well drained — but another 59% drains differently: 28% poorly drained, 18% moderately well drained.
Norfolk is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Wagram (12%) and Rains (10%).
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 Sampson County
Each reading below is measured for Sampson 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 Sampson 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 Sampson County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, 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 36% of Sampson 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
MeasuredSampson County runs about 260 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Sampson County is in
Sampson County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (90%) and Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain (10%). 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 Sampson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sampson County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 260-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 Sampson County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Sampson County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sampson County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Sampson County
USGS estimates 167,802 lb of Glyphosate on Sampson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (61,138 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (58,852 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 Sampson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sampson County — 486 documented sites across 8 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 Sampson 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 Sampson County
Closest first, across Sampson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SA-116 GW NITRATE SITE 27Nitrate · 2300 ft
- SAMPSON COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- COHARIE COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- J. E. SINCLAIR & CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DEACON JONES GMBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GENE'S AERIAL SPRAYINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DEACON JONES TOYOTABrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MOHASCO UPHOLSTERED FURNITURE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HONEYCUTT EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ESTECH, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #776Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- GOGAS 17Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sampson 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 Sampson County.
Total Sites
486
across Sampson County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Sampson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sampson County, two things run higher than the national average across Sampson County — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (134 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sampson 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 Sampson County average
Your land is one point inside Sampson County
Everything above resolves to Sampson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 605K 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 Sampson County Average
Sampson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Sampson County
- ●One soil character for all of Sampson County
- ●Frost dates read at Sampson County's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sampson County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sampson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sampson County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sampson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sampson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sampson County average
How we know this about Sampson 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 Sampson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sampson County
When does frost risk typically end in Sampson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sampson County typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
How long is the growing season in Sampson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sampson County sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 12, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sampson County?
The federal record around Sampson County is a meaningful one — 486 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (279), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Sampson County's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sampson 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 Sampson County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Sampson County's own scale — its own ~260-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 486 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sampson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sampson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sampson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 486 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sampson County's boundary and the 605,396 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Sampson County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sampson 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 Sampson County — the ~260 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 Sampson County's 605,396 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 486 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 Sampson Countyread your own land →