Weakley County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Weakley County lies within the West Tennessee (Gulf Coastal Plain / Loess Plains) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Weakley County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Weakley 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 Weakley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Weakley County — the short answer
Weakley County, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 371K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 371K 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 Weakley County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Weakley County's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Weakley County
Across a year, Weakley County accumulates about 4,273 growing degree days above 50°F, about 160 more than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of 72 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 2,223 hours below 45°F, 164 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 Weakley County
Across Weakley County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Loring, Grenada, and Collins are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.1–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
44%
Hydric soils
15%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Weakley County
The USDA soil survey maps 56% of Weakley County as moderately well drained — but another 40% drains differently: 15% poorly drained, 13% well drained.
Loring is the most extensive named soil at 39% of mapped acres, then Grenada (10%) and Collins (9%).
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 Weakley County
Each reading below is measured for Weakley 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 Weakley County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Weakley County runs about pH 5.1–5.3, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 15% of Weakley County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredWeakley County runs about 230 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
The kind of country Weakley County is in
Weakley County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (56%) and Southeastern Plains (44%). 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 Weakley County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Weakley County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 230-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 Weakley 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 Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Weakley County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Weakley County
USGS estimates 228,576 lb of Glyphosate on Weakley County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (131,882 lb) and Acetochlor (53,589 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 Weakley County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Weakley County — 237 documented sites across 7 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.
There's a meaningful federal record across Weakley 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 Weakley County
Closest first, across Weakley County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Jerry's 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Sharon High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Co Unit #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Volunteer MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Weakley Co Municipal Electric SyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Latham Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- City Of Dresden (public Works)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Hutcherson's GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Eddie's Full ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Thermatool-lemontUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Bryant's Tire and Alignment CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Kountry KornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Weakley 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 Weakley County.
Total Sites
237
across Weakley County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Weakley County
Severity Distribution
across Weakley County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Weakley County, two things run higher than the national average across Weakley County — CAFO (13 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (158 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Weakley 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 Weakley County average
Your land is one point inside Weakley County
Everything above resolves to Weakley County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 371K 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 Weakley County Average
Weakley County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Weakley County
- ●One soil character for all of Weakley County
- ●Frost dates read at Weakley County's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Weakley County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Weakley County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Weakley County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Weakley County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Weakley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weakley County average
How we know this about Weakley 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 Weakley County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Weakley County
When does frost risk typically end in Weakley County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Weakley County typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
How long is the growing season in Weakley County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Weakley County sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 26, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Weakley County?
The federal record around Weakley County is a meaningful one — 237 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (158), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Weakley County's scale — its 7b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Weakley 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 Weakley County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Weakley County's own scale — its own ~230-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 237 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Weakley County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Weakley County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Weakley CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 237 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Weakley County's boundary and the 371,426 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Weakley County spans, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Weakley County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Weakley 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 Weakley County — the ~230 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 Weakley County's 371,426 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 237 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 Weakley Countyread your own land →