Morristown, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Even in Morristown, 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 Morristown 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 Morristown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morristown — the short answer
Morristown, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 18K 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 Morristown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morristown's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morristown
Each reading below is measured for Morristown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorristown runs about 233 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
MeasuredMorristown 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 Morristown is in
Morristown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morristown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamblen County.
What Grows in Morristown
Every plant below cleared Morristown's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morristown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Morristown
Survey cells within 31 miles of Morristown checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 58 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Morristown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morristown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROYSTON CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH DODGEBrownfields · 950 ft
- City of MorristownUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Morris Blv. ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Morris Blvd. ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Morris Blvd Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- South Central-mrtwtnca Real EstaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Alpha Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Bob Bales FordUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Morris Printing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Pet DairyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Cf MotorfreightUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KOCH FOODS OF MORRISTOWN (PROCESSING PLANT)Toxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morristown'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 Morristown.
Total Sites
455
within ~10 miles of Morristown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morristown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morristown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morristown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Morristown — Toxics Release Inventory (57 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Morristown
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 Morristown average
Your land is one point inside Morristown
Everything above resolves to Morristown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Morristown Average
Morristown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Morristown
- ●One soil character for all of Morristown
- ●Frost dates read at Morristown's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morristown's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morristown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morristown, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morristown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morristown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morristown average
How we know this about Morristown
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 Morristown’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 Morristown
When does frost risk typically end in Morristown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morristown typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Morristown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morristown typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morristown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morristown sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morristown?
The federal record around Morristown is a meaningful one — 455 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (311), the nearest Brownfields 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 Morristown?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morristown's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morristown'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 Morristown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Morristown's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,857 acres it covers and 455 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morristown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morristown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 11 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 455 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morristown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morristown's boundary and the 17,857 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morristown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Morristown 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 Morristown's 17,857 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamblen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamblen 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 Hamblen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morristown's 17,857 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morristown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,857 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Morristown-wide figureread your own land →
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