Pine Crest, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pine Crest, 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 Pine Crest 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 Pine Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Crest — the short answer
Pine Crest, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Pine Crest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Crest's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Crest
Each reading below is measured for Pine Crest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Crest runs about 219 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
MeasuredPine Crest 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 Pine Crest is in
Pine Crest sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Crest's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Carter County is mostly Blue Ridge. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pine Crest
Every plant below cleared Pine Crest's own zone 7b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Crest?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Pine Crest
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Pine Crest, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pine Crest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Crest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Valleybrook FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Ct:G-016 UTEN98-24Nitrate · 1500 ft
- Mr. B's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Watauga Plaza, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Kenjo No. 46Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Smith Wholesale CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Roadrunner Market #168Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Milligan CollegeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Reinhart Foodservice, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- The OutpostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SUN SPORTSWEAR INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- K Suto IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Crest'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 Pine Crest.
Total Sites
648
within ~10 miles of Pine Crest
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Crest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Crest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Crest, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pine Crest — Toxics Release Inventory (49 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (479 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pine Crest
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 Pine Crest average
Your land is one point inside Pine Crest
Everything above resolves to Pine Crest as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Pine Crest Average
Pine Crest Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Pine Crest
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Crest
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Crest's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Crest's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Crest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Crest, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Crest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Crest average
How we know this about Pine Crest
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 Pine Crest’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 Pine Crest
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Crest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Crest typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Pine Crest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Crest typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Crest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Crest sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Crest?
The federal record around Pine Crest is a meaningful one — 648 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (479), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pine Crest?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Crest's scale — its 7b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Crest'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 Pine Crest’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pine Crest's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,234 acres it covers and 648 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Crest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Crest's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 648 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Crest, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Crest's boundary and the 1,234 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pine Crest sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pine Crestlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Crest's 1,234 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carter 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 Carter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Crest's 1,234 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Crest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,234 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Pine Crest-wide figureread your own land →
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