Knightdale, North Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Knightdale, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Knightdale lot. 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 Knightdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Knightdale — the short answer
Knightdale, North Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Knightdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Knightdale's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Knightdale
Each reading below is measured for Knightdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKnightdale runs about 248 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
MeasuredKnightdale 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 Knightdale is in
Knightdale sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Knightdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wake County.
What Grows in Knightdale
Every plant below cleared Knightdale's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Knightdale?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Knightdale
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Knightdale, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Knightdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Knightdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COSMOPROF #66233Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WALMART #1816Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #502Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #3663Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- HENRY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KNIGHTDALE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KNIGHTDALE RESCUE SQUADUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BROADWELL'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HASTY MART 17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WHALEN'S IN KNIGHTDALEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MIKE'S KNIGTHDALE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WALGREENS #9555Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Knightdale'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 Knightdale.
Total Sites
1,182
within ~10 miles of Knightdale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Knightdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Knightdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Knightdale, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 739 sites within ~10 miles of Knightdale. 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 Knightdale
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 Knightdale average
Your land is one point inside Knightdale
Everything above resolves to Knightdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Knightdale Average
Knightdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Knightdale
- ●One soil character for all of Knightdale
- ●Frost dates read at Knightdale's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Knightdale's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Knightdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Knightdale, North Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Knightdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Knightdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Knightdale average
How we know this about Knightdale
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Knightdale’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Knightdale
When does frost risk typically end in Knightdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Knightdale typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Knightdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Knightdale typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Knightdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Knightdale sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 4, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Knightdale?
The federal record around Knightdale is a meaningful one — 1,182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (739), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Knightdale?
From about Oct 19 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Knightdale's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Knightdale's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Knightdale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Knightdale's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,161 acres it covers and 1,182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Knightdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Knightdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 18 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Knightdale, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Knightdale's boundary and the 6,161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Knightdale's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Knightdalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Knightdale's 6,161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wake County
- The growing challenges every North Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Wake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Knightdale's 6,161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Knightdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,161 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Knightdale-wide figureread your own land →
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