White Pine, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in White Pine, 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 White Pine 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 White Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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White Pine — the short answer
White Pine, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- 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 White Pine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against White Pine's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in White Pine
Each reading below is measured for White Pine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhite Pine runs about 227 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
MeasuredWhite Pine 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 White Pine is in
White Pine sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at White Pine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in White Pine
Every plant below cleared White Pine's own zone 7b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in White Pine?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 6 — 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 White Pine
Survey cells within 31 miles of White Pine checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 53 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near White Pine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of White Pine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Food Farm Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Woody's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Jf:G-004Nitrate · 1900 ft
- Food City Gas N Go #618Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Jf:G-003Nitrate · 2200 ft
- Easy - In MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Town Of White PineUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- White Pine ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- White Pine DinerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CMH MANUFACTURING INC (DBA TRU MH)Toxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- Herbert E. WiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Collins MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from White Pine'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 White Pine.
Total Sites
446
within ~10 miles of White Pine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of White Pine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of White Pine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around White Pine, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of White Pine — Toxics Release Inventory (48 sites) and Superfund (8 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.
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 White Pine
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 White Pine average
Your land is one point inside White Pine
Everything above resolves to White Pine 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 White Pine Average
White Pine Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across White Pine
- ●One soil character for all of White Pine
- ●Frost dates read at White Pine's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not White Pine's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in White Pine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in White Pine, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that White Pine averages can't show:
We read public map data around White Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the White Pine average
How we know this about White Pine
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 White Pine’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 White Pine
When does frost risk typically end in White Pine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in White Pine 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 White Pine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in White Pine typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in White Pine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, White Pine sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 23, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in White Pine?
The federal record around White Pine is a meaningful one — 446 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (328), 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 White Pine?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at White Pine's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of White Pine'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 White Pine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at White Pine's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,838 acres it covers and 446 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- White Pine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- White Pine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 6 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 446 documented contamination sites on the federal record near White Pine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- White Pine's boundary and the 1,838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at White Pine's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around White Pine 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 White Pine's 1,838 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among White Pine's 1,838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of White Pine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,838 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 White Pine-wide figureread your own land →
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