Claiborne County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Claiborne County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Claiborne County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Claiborne 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 Claiborne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Claiborne County — the short answer
Claiborne County, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 278K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 278K 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 7a is Claiborne County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Claiborne County's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Claiborne County
Across a year, Claiborne County accumulates about 3,714 growing degree days above 50°F, about 399 fewer than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of 14 of Tennessee’s 95 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 2,459 hours below 45°F, 400 more than the Tennessee middle of 2,059. 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 Claiborne County
Across Claiborne County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Fullerton, Muskingum, and Clarksville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Claiborne County
The USDA soil survey maps 72% of Claiborne County as well drained — but another 12% drains differently: 9% somewhat excessively drained, 3% moderately well drained.
Fullerton is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Muskingum (24%) and Clarksville (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 Claiborne County
Each reading below is measured for Claiborne 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 Claiborne 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 Claiborne County runs about pH 5.0–5.3, 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
MeasuredClaiborne County runs about 216 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
MeasuredClaiborne County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Claiborne County is in
Claiborne County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Ridge and Valley (78%) and Central Appalachians (22%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Claiborne County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Claiborne County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 216-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 Tennessee profile.
Is it too late to plant in Claiborne 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 Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Claiborne County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Claiborne County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 79 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Claiborne County
USGS estimates 4,307 lb of 2,4-d on Claiborne County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (3,174 lb) and Atrazine (2,051 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 Claiborne County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Claiborne County — 276 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Claiborne County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Claiborne County
Closest first, across Claiborne County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Western Kings BendMining · 1800 ft
- Kings Bend Prospect, West SideMining · 1900 ft
- Kings Bend Prospect, WestMining · 1900 ft
- S.H. Brown LeaseMining · 2500 ft
- Kings Bend InsideMining · 0.6 mi
- Kings Bend Prospect InsideMining · 0.6 mi
- Kings Bend MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Robert BruceMining · 0.7 mi
- Cline ProspectMining · 1.3 mi
- ClineMining · 1.3 mi
- LoganMining · 1.3 mi
- Gardner-Tva ProspectMining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Claiborne 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 Claiborne County.
Total Sites
276
across Claiborne County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Claiborne County
Severity Distribution
across Claiborne County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Claiborne County, two things run higher than the national average across Claiborne County — Mining (154 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Claiborne 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 Claiborne County average
Your land is one point inside Claiborne County
Everything above resolves to Claiborne County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 278K 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 Claiborne County Average
Claiborne County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Claiborne County
- ●One soil character for all of Claiborne County
- ●Frost dates read at Claiborne County's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Claiborne County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Claiborne County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Claiborne County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Claiborne County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Claiborne County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Claiborne County average
How we know this about Claiborne 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 Claiborne County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Claiborne County
When does frost risk typically end in Claiborne County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Claiborne County typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Claiborne County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Claiborne County sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 20, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Claiborne County?
The federal record around Claiborne County runs heavier than most — 276 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (154), the nearest Mining record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Claiborne County's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Claiborne 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 Tennessee's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Claiborne County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Claiborne County's own scale — its own ~216-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 276 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Claiborne County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Claiborne County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Claiborne CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 276 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Claiborne County's boundary and the 278,171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Claiborne County spans, Ridge and Valley the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Claiborne County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Claiborne County — the ~216 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 Claiborne County's 278,171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 276 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 Claiborne Countyread your own land →