Madisonville, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Madisonville, 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 Madisonville 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 Madisonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Madisonville — the short answer
Madisonville, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Madisonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madisonville's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madisonville
Each reading below is measured for Madisonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMadisonville 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
MeasuredMadisonville 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 Madisonville is in
Madisonville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Madisonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Madisonville
Every plant below cleared Madisonville's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madisonville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Madisonville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Madisonville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 83 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Madisonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madisonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fort Loudon Electric Co-opUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- R And S Concrete CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Monroe County Jail/sheriffs DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Craighead LimestoneUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Csx TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Fina Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Blake BrittonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Russell's Full ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Monroe Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE #1229Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Keep Clean Car WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Three Point Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madisonville'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 Madisonville.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Madisonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madisonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madisonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madisonville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Madisonville — Toxics Release Inventory (25 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Madisonville
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 Madisonville average
Your land is one point inside Madisonville
Everything above resolves to Madisonville 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 city 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 Madisonville Average
Madisonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Madisonville
- ●One soil character for all of Madisonville
- ●Frost dates read at Madisonville's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madisonville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madisonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madisonville, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madisonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madisonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madisonville average
How we know this about Madisonville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Madisonville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Madisonville
When does frost risk typically end in Madisonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madisonville 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 Madisonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madisonville typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madisonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madisonville 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 Madisonville?
The federal record around Madisonville is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), 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 Madisonville?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Madisonville's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madisonville'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 Madisonville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Madisonville's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,843 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madisonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madisonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 12 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madisonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madisonville's boundary and the 3,843 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Madisonville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Madisonville 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 Madisonville's 3,843 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Madisonville's 3,843 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madisonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,843 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 Madisonville-wide figureread your own land →
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