Tyrrell County, in North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Tyrrell County lies within Tidewater & Chesapeake — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Tyrrell County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tyrrell County — the short answer
Tyrrell County, North Carolina: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 250K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- 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 8b is Tyrrell County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tyrrell County's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Tyrrell County
Across a year, Tyrrell County accumulates about 4,821 growing degree days above 50°F, about 431 more than the middle North Carolina county — ahead of 74 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 1,405 hours below 45°F, 358 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 Tyrrell County
Across Tyrrell County, the ground is predominantly Histosols, where Pungo, Belhaven, and Dorovan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Histosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
96%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Tyrrell County
The USDA soil survey maps 55% of Tyrrell County as very poorly drained — but another 10% drains differently: 8% poorly drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Pungo is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Belhaven (10%) and Dorovan (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 Tyrrell County
Each reading below is measured for Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County are very poorly drained, in hydrologic group B/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Tyrrell County runs about pH 4.5–5.0, 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
MeasuredTyrrell County runs about 273 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTyrrell County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Tyrrell County is in
Tyrrell County sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Tyrrell County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Tyrrell County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 273-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 Tyrrell 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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Tyrrell County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tyrrell 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Tyrrell County
USGS estimates 141,476 lb of Glyphosate on Tyrrell County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (33,872 lb) and 2,4-d (26,712 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 Tyrrell County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Tyrrell County — 30 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 brownfield site. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Tyrrell County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Tyrrell County
Closest first, across Tyrrell County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MR-420 MARTIN T-1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- SHORT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- TYRRELL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- LARRY'S FOOD & TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- SPEEDWAY #8680Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- COLUMBIA BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- OAKES AMOCO SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- CATAWBA DIVISON - C.L.T.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- SCUPPERNONG QUIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- TOWN OF COLUMBIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- MAIN STREET EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- WAYNE AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County.
Severity Distribution
across Tyrrell County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tyrrell County, two things run higher than the national average across Tyrrell County — Underground Storage Tanks (21 sites) and Nitrate (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County average
Your land is one point inside Tyrrell County
Everything above resolves to Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County Average
Tyrrell County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tyrrell County
- ●One soil character for all of Tyrrell County
- ●Frost dates read at Tyrrell County's scale: Mar 6 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tyrrell County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Tyrrell County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tyrrell County, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tyrrell County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tyrrell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tyrrell County average
How we know this about Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Tyrrell County
When does frost risk typically end in Tyrrell County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tyrrell County typically lands around Mar 6, 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 Mar 27.
How long is the growing season in Tyrrell County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tyrrell County sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 20, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tyrrell County?
The federal record around Tyrrell County is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Tyrrell County's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Tyrrell County's own scale — its own ~273-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 30 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tyrrell County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tyrrell County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Tyrrell CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 30 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Tyrrell County's boundary and the 250,097 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tyrrell County sitting wholly inside the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Tyrrell 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 Tyrrell County — the ~273 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 Tyrrell County's 250,097 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 30 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 Tyrrell Countyread your own land →