Dandridge, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dandridge, 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 Dandridge 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 Dandridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dandridge — the short answer
Dandridge, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 7b is Dandridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dandridge's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dandridge
Each reading below is measured for Dandridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDandridge runs about 228 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
MeasuredDandridge 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 Dandridge is in
Dandridge sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dandridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Dandridge
Every plant below cleared Dandridge's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dandridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 7 — 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 Dandridge
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dandridge checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 56 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dandridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dandridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US MARINE/BAYLINER MARINEToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- U.S. MARINE CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Happy Family MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- OVERMAN INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION DBA OVERMAN USABrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Weigel's #61Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Jefferson County Sheriff DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Lehigh Gas Wholesale Services, Inc/TN0023Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Mountain View Youth Dev'l CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Food City Gas N Go #630Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Fastop #11Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Pilot Travel Center #226Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 417 MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dandridge'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 Dandridge.
Total Sites
277
within ~10 miles of Dandridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dandridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dandridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dandridge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dandridge — PFAS (5 sites) and Mining (29 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Dandridge
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 Dandridge average
Your land is one point inside Dandridge
Everything above resolves to Dandridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 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 Dandridge Average
Dandridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dandridge
- ●One soil character for all of Dandridge
- ●Frost dates read at Dandridge's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dandridge's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dandridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dandridge, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dandridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dandridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dandridge average
How we know this about Dandridge
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 Dandridge’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 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 Dandridge
When does frost risk typically end in Dandridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dandridge 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.
When is the first frost in Dandridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dandridge typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dandridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dandridge sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 24, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dandridge?
The federal record around Dandridge is a meaningful one — 277 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (175), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 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 Dandridge?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dandridge's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dandridge'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 Dandridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dandridge's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,907 acres it covers and 277 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dandridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dandridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 7 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 277 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dandridge, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dandridge's boundary and the 3,907 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dandridge's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dandridge checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dandridge's 3,907 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson County
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dandridge's 3,907 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dandridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,907 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 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 Dandridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Growing region
Nearby growing guides