Cheraw, South Carolina, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cheraw, 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 Cheraw 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 Cheraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cheraw — the short answer
Cheraw, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Chesterfield County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Chesterfield County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- Chesterfield County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Chesterfield County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Cheraw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cheraw's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cheraw
Each reading below is measured for Cheraw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCheraw runs about 258 days between hard freezes (read from Chesterfield County, the closest normal to Cheraw) — 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
MeasuredCheraw 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 Cheraw is in
Cheraw sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cheraw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chesterfield County.
What Grows in Cheraw
Every plant below cleared Cheraw's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cheraw?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Cheraw
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cheraw checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 75 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cheraw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cheraw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHERAW FLOOD SITESuperfund · 300 ft
- BURLINGTON INDUSTRIES CHERAWSuperfund · 450 ft
- TAKATA RESTRAINT SYSTEMS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- HIGHLAND INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- TEX-TECH COATINGS LLCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- HIGHLAND INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BENNETT MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BENNETT MOTOR COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SHAWS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MCLEOD HEALTH CHERAWBrownfields · 1600 ft
- PROFESSIONAL CLEANERS AND LAUNDRYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- COOPER TOOLS WELLER WIRE WRAP OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cheraw'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 Cheraw.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cheraw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cheraw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cheraw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cheraw — Superfund (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cheraw
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 Cheraw average
Your land is one point inside Cheraw
Everything above resolves to Cheraw as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chesterfield County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Cheraw Average
Cheraw Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cheraw
- ●One soil character for all of Cheraw
- ●Frost dates read at Cheraw's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cheraw's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cheraw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cheraw, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cheraw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cheraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cheraw average
How we know this about Cheraw
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 Chesterfield County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Cheraw
When does frost risk typically end in Cheraw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cheraw 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.
When is the first frost in Cheraw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cheraw typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cheraw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cheraw sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 10, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cheraw?
The federal record around Cheraw is a meaningful one — 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cheraw?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cheraw's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cheraw'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 Cheraw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cheraw's own scale — the 3,811 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cheraw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cheraw, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cheraw's boundary and the 3,811 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cheraw's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cheraw checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cheraw has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chesterfield County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cheraw's 3,811 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chesterfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chesterfield County
- The growing challenges every South Carolina grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom South Carolina
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Chesterfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cheraw's 3,811 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cheraw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,811 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cheraw-wide figureread your own land →
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