Knox County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Knox 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
Knox County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Knox 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 Knox County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Knox County — the short answer
Knox County, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 325K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 325K 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 7b is Knox County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Knox County's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Knox County
Across a year, Knox County accumulates about 4,099 growing degree days above 50°F, about 14 fewer than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of 42 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 2,080 hours below 45°F, 21 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 Knox County
Across Knox County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Dewey, Corryton, and Minvale are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.6, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
19%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Knox County
The USDA soil survey maps 80% of Knox County as well drained — but another 11% drains differently: 9% moderately well drained, 2% poorly drained.
Dewey is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Corryton (11%) and Minvale (11%).
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 Knox County
Each reading below is measured for Knox 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 Knox 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 Knox County runs about pH 5.0–5.6, 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
MeasuredKnox County runs about 238 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
MeasuredKnox County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Knox County is in
Knox County sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Knox County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Knox County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 238-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 Knox County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Knox County
- Japanese beetle14 documented records
- monarch butterfly50 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Knox County
USGS estimates 4,412 lb of Glyphosate on Knox County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (2,794 lb) and 2,4-d (2,274 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 Knox County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Knox County — 1,498 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 16 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Knox County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Knox County
Closest first, across Knox County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fire Station #8Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Silver Furniture Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SILVER FURNITURE COToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- KNOXVILLE LOCOMOTIVE WORKSBrownfields · 900 ft
- Dempster Systems IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Nikinsaa LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Tennessee Roofing CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Roach's AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ADVANCED PROCESS POLYMER RECYCLINGToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- Del-air Service Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SKYLINE TRANSPORTATION INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Southern Foundry Supply IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Knox 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 Knox County.
Sources Checked
across Knox County
Severity Distribution
across Knox County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Knox County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,119 sites across Knox County. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Knox 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 Knox County average
Your land is one point inside Knox County
Everything above resolves to Knox County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 325K 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 Knox County Average
Knox County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Knox County
- ●One soil character for all of Knox County
- ●Frost dates read at Knox County's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Knox County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Knox County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Knox County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Knox County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Knox County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Knox County average
How we know this about Knox 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 Knox County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Knox County
When does frost risk typically end in Knox County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Knox County typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
How long is the growing season in Knox County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Knox County sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 29, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Knox County?
The federal record around Knox County is a meaningful one — 1,498 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,119), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Knox County's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Knox 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 Knox County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Knox County's own scale — its own ~238-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,498 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Knox County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Knox County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Knox CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,498 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Knox County's boundary and the 325,328 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Knox County sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Knox County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Knox 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 Knox County — the ~238 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 Knox County's 325,328 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,498 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 Knox Countyread your own land →