Whitwell, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Whitwell, 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 Whitwell 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 Whitwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Whitwell — the short answer
Whitwell, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 8a is Whitwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whitwell's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Whitwell
Each reading below is measured for Whitwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhitwell runs about 243 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
MeasuredWhitwell sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Whitwell is in
Whitwell sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Whitwell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Whitwell
Every plant below cleared Whitwell's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Whitwell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Whitwell
Survey cells within 31 miles of Whitwell checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Whitwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Whitwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Raceway #739Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Terry's Tires and Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Jr Food MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Whitwell Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Terry's AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Castle's Grocery, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Gracie HollowayUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Thressa Ann MearsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Whitwell AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Whitwell ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- City Of WhitwellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Amoco*Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whitwell'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 Whitwell.
Total Sites
71
within ~10 miles of Whitwell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Whitwell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Whitwell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whitwell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Whitwell — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (20 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Whitwell
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 Whitwell average
Your land is one point inside Whitwell
Everything above resolves to Whitwell 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 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 Whitwell Average
Whitwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Whitwell
- ●One soil character for all of Whitwell
- ●Frost dates read at Whitwell's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whitwell's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Whitwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whitwell, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whitwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whitwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whitwell average
How we know this about Whitwell
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 Whitwell’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 Whitwell
When does frost risk typically end in Whitwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whitwell typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Whitwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Whitwell typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Whitwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whitwell sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 2, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whitwell?
The federal record around Whitwell is a meaningful one — 71 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), 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 Whitwell?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Whitwell's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whitwell'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 Whitwell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Whitwell's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,246 acres it covers and 71 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whitwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Whitwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 16 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 71 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Whitwell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Whitwell's boundary and the 2,246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Whitwell's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Whitwell 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 Whitwell's 2,246 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Whitwell's 2,246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Whitwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,246 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 Whitwell-wide figureread your own land →