Woodruff, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodruff, 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 Woodruff 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 Woodruff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodruff — the short answer
Woodruff, South Carolina: USDA zone 8a, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- 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
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Woodruff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodruff's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodruff
Each reading below is measured for Woodruff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodruff runs about 246 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
MeasuredWoodruff 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 Woodruff is in
Woodruff sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Woodruff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spartanburg County.
What Grows in Woodruff
Every plant below cleared Woodruff's own zone 8a and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's South Carolina profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodruff?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (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. 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.
What's on the federal record near Woodruff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodruff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COOPER AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #3095Brownfields · 1200 ft
- DUKE ENERGY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PANTRY 503Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WOODRUFF EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WOODRUFF HANDEE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CIRCLE K 2721503Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- A&B FLORISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- B&J CAR CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- B&J SALVAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- USPS WOODRUFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STRIBBLE 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodruff'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 Woodruff.
Total Sites
232
within ~10 miles of Woodruff
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodruff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodruff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodruff, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woodruff — Superfund (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (23 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 Woodruff
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 Woodruff average
Your land is one point inside Woodruff
Everything above resolves to Woodruff as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Woodruff Average
Woodruff Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Woodruff
- ●One soil character for all of Woodruff
- ●Frost dates read at Woodruff's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodruff's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodruff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodruff, South Carolina — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodruff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodruff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodruff average
How we know this about Woodruff
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Woodruff’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Woodruff
When does frost risk typically end in Woodruff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodruff typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Woodruff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodruff 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 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodruff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodruff sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 4, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodruff?
The federal record around Woodruff is a meaningful one — 232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Woodruff?
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 Woodruff's scale — its 8a band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodruff'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 Woodruff’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Woodruff's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,247 acres it covers and 232 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodruff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodruff's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 18 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodruff, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodruff's boundary and the 3,247 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodruff's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Woodruff's 3,247 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spartanburg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spartanburg 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 Spartanburg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Woodruff's 3,247 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodruff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,247 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Woodruff-wide figureread your own land →