Stokes County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Stokes County lies within the Blue Ridge and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Stokes County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Stokes 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 Stokes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stokes County — the short answer
Stokes County, North Carolina: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 288K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 288K 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 Stokes County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stokes County's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Stokes County
Across a year, Stokes County accumulates about 3,749 growing degree days above 50°F, about 641 fewer than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 19 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 2,175 hours below 45°F, 412 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 Stokes County
Across Stokes County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Fairview, Poplar Forest, and Rhodhiss are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–5.7, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Stokes County
The USDA soil survey maps 96% of Stokes County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 1% somewhat poorly drained, 1% moderately well drained.
Fairview is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Poplar Forest (20%) and Rhodhiss (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 Stokes County
Each reading below is measured for Stokes 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 Stokes 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 Stokes County runs about pH 5.5–5.7, 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
MeasuredStokes County runs about 232 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
MeasuredStokes 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 Stokes County is in
Stokes County sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Stokes County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Stokes County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 232-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 Stokes 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 10 — 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 Stokes County
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Stokes County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Stokes County
USGS estimates 3,277 lb of 2,4-d on Stokes County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,724 lb) and Dicamba (918 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 Stokes County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Stokes County — 180 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Stokes County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Stokes County
Closest first, across Stokes County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RUBY NELSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- MABE OIL & GAS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- FULP'S GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- QUAKER GAP GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- HANGING ROCK STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- LAYMANS SHELTON'S AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SAURATOWN MTN COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- ARCHIE'S GROCERY & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- LANCE'S GROCERY & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- JODI'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- HILLSIDE MARKET & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- STOKES COUNTY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stokes 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 Stokes County.
Total Sites
180
across Stokes County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Stokes County
Severity Distribution
across Stokes County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stokes County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 156 sites across Stokes County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Stokes 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 Stokes County average
Your land is one point inside Stokes County
Everything above resolves to Stokes County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 288K 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 Stokes County Average
Stokes County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Stokes County
- ●One soil character for all of Stokes County
- ●Frost dates read at Stokes County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stokes County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Stokes County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stokes County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stokes County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stokes County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stokes County average
How we know this about Stokes 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 Stokes County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Stokes County
When does frost risk typically end in Stokes County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stokes 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 Stokes County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stokes County sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 27, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stokes County?
The federal record around Stokes County shows 180 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (156), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Stokes County's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stokes 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 Stokes County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Stokes County's own scale — its own ~232-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 180 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stokes County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stokes County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Stokes CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 180 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Stokes County's boundary and the 287,566 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stokes County sitting wholly inside the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Stokes County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Stokes 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 Stokes County — the ~232 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 Stokes County's 287,566 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 180 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 Stokes Countyread your own land →