Karns, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Karns, 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 Karns 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 Karns — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Karns — the short answer
Karns, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Karns's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Karns's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Karns
Each reading below is measured for Karns itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKarns runs about 240 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
MeasuredKarns 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 Karns is in
Karns sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Karns's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Karns
Every plant below cleared Karns's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Karns?
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 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 14 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Karns
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Karns. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Karns Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Weigel's #45Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- EZ Stop Food Mart #6Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Lessard Ind IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TOM'S FOODS - KNOXVILLE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- Ingles Gas Express #304Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KNOXVILLE UTILITIES BOARD-KUBPFAS · 1.0 mi
- TimbersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- OMEGA PLASTICSToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- Thoni Oil Co Of FloridaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Kelso Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Conner Brother Excavating CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Karns'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 Karns.
Total Sites
1,031
within ~10 miles of Karns
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Karns
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Karns
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Karns, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Karns — Underground Storage Tanks (728 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (69 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Karns
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 Karns average
Your land is one point inside Karns
Everything above resolves to Karns as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Karns Average
Karns Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Karns
- ●One soil character for all of Karns
- ●Frost dates read at Karns's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Karns's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Karns
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Karns, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Karns averages can't show:
We read public map data around Karns — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Karns average
How we know this about Karns
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 Karns’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 Karns
When does frost risk typically end in Karns?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Karns 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.
When is the first frost in Karns?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Karns typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Karns?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Karns sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 31, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Karns?
The federal record around Karns is a meaningful one — 1,031 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (728), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Karns?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Karns's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Karns'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 Karns’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Karns's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,910 acres it covers and 1,031 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Karns's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Karns's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 14 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,031 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Karns, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Karns's boundary and the 1,910 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Karns's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Karns's 1,910 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Karns's 1,910 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Karns you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,910 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Karns-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Growing region