Fall Branch, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Fall Branch, 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 Fall Branch 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 Fall Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fall Branch — the short answer
Fall Branch, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 7b is Fall Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fall Branch's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fall Branch
Each reading below is measured for Fall Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFall Branch runs about 221 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
MeasuredFall Branch 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 Fall Branch is in
Fall Branch sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fall Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Fall Branch
Every plant below cleared Fall Branch's own zone 7b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fall Branch?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Fall Branch
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Fall Branch, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fall Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fall Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fall Branch GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- H and P AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Hunt's 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Fall Branch SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Bradley`s GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fall Branch PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Fall Branch Zinc MineMining · 1.7 mi
- Fall Branch Zn MineMining · 1.7 mi
- Fall BranchMining · 1.7 mi
- Murrell Farm ProspectMining · 1.8 mi
- Munchies Country Store and KitchenUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 93 PubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fall Branch'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 Fall Branch.
Total Sites
341
within ~10 miles of Fall Branch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fall Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fall Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fall Branch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fall Branch — Underground Storage Tanks (246 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fall Branch
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 Fall Branch average
Your land is one point inside Fall Branch
Everything above resolves to Fall Branch 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 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 Fall Branch Average
Fall Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Fall Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Fall Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Fall Branch's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fall Branch's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fall Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fall Branch, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fall Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fall Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fall Branch average
How we know this about Fall Branch
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 Fall Branch’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 Fall Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Fall Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fall Branch typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Fall Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fall Branch typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fall Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fall Branch sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fall Branch?
The federal record around Fall Branch is a meaningful one — 341 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (246), 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 Fall Branch?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fall Branch's scale — its 7b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fall Branch'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 Fall Branch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fall Branch's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,891 acres it covers and 341 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fall Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fall Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 341 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fall Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fall Branch's boundary and the 2,891 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fall Branch's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fall Branchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fall Branch's 2,891 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fall Branch's 2,891 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fall Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,891 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 Fall Branch-wide figureread your own land →
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