Riceville, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Riceville, 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 Riceville 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 Riceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Riceville — the short answer
Riceville, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- 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 Riceville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Riceville's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Riceville
Each reading below is measured for Riceville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRiceville runs about 230 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
MeasuredRiceville 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 Riceville is in
Riceville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Riceville's own centroid rather than borrowed from McMinn County.
What Grows in Riceville
Every plant below cleared Riceville's own zone 7b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Riceville?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Riceville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Riceville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Scandlyn Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Riceville Gulf ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Indu Sai Market no. 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Gene Layne ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Saltillo SsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- J.b. PowellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Express Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Harry's no. 27Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Wagon WheelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- RICEVILLE UTILITY DISTRICTPFAS · 2.1 mi
- LOWE'S OF ATHENS #1196Brownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Riceville'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 Riceville.
Total Sites
236
within ~10 miles of Riceville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Riceville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Riceville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Riceville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Riceville — Toxics Release Inventory (29 sites) and Superfund (5 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.
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 Riceville
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 Riceville average
Your land is one point inside Riceville
Everything above resolves to Riceville 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 Riceville Average
Riceville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Riceville
- ●One soil character for all of Riceville
- ●Frost dates read at Riceville's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Riceville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Riceville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Riceville, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Riceville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Riceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Riceville average
How we know this about Riceville
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 Riceville’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 Riceville
When does frost risk typically end in Riceville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Riceville typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Riceville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Riceville typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Riceville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Riceville sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 26, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Riceville?
The federal record around Riceville is a meaningful one — 236 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (160), 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 Riceville?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Riceville's scale — its 7b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Riceville'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 Riceville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Riceville's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,393 acres it covers and 236 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Riceville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Riceville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 9 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 236 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Riceville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Riceville's boundary and the 1,393 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Riceville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Riceville's 1,393 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McMinn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McMinn 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 McMinn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Riceville's 1,393 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Riceville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,393 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 Riceville-wide figureread your own land →
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