Poquoson city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Poquoson city lies within the Hampton Roads / Coastal Southeast Virginia and Tidewater & Chesapeake — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Poquoson city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Poquoson city, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Poquoson city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Poquoson city — the short answer
Poquoson city, Virginia: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 10K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 8b is Poquoson city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poquoson city's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Poquoson city
Across a year, Poquoson city accumulates about 4,506 growing degree days above 50°F, about 772 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 126 of Virginia’s 133 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,529 hours below 45°F, 909 fewer than the Virginia middle of 2,438. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Poquoson County
Across Poquoson County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Craven, Axis, and State are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–6.8, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
0%
Hydric soils
38%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Poquoson city
The USDA soil survey maps 37% of Poquoson city as moderately well drained — but another 47% drains differently: 17% very poorly drained, 13% well drained.
Craven is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Axis (18%) and State (13%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Poquoson city
Each reading below is measured for Poquoson city itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Poquoson city are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Poquoson city runs about pH 4.8–6.8, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 38% of Poquoson city is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredPoquoson city runs about 282 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
The kind of country Poquoson city is in
Poquoson city sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Poquoson city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Poquoson city's own USDA zone 8b and its own 282-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Poquoson city?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Poquoson city
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Poquoson city, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Poquoson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Poquoson County — 22 documented sites across 2 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Poquoson County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Poquoson city
Closest first, across Poquoson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LUCKY 7 MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SHEFFIELD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- JOHN A. & EDNA PEARCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- POQUOSON MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- J T AMORY GENERAL MERCHANDISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CITY OF POQUOSON PUBLIC WORKS FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- POQUOSON MARINA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- RIGGINS MOTOR CO INCBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- RIGGINS MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- POQUOSON HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- POQUOSON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- ACTION FIBERGLASSBrownfields · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poquoson city'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 Poquoson city.
Severity Distribution
across Poquoson County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Poquoson city
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 Poquoson city average
Your land is one point inside Poquoson city
Everything above resolves to Poquoson city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 10K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Poquoson city Average
Poquoson city Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Poquoson city
- ●One soil character for all of Poquoson city
- ●Frost dates read at Poquoson city's scale: Mar 1 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poquoson city's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Poquoson city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poquoson city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poquoson city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poquoson city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poquoson city average
How we know this about Poquoson city
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Poquoson city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Poquoson city
When does frost risk typically end in Poquoson city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poquoson city typically lands around Mar 1, 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 Mar 22.
How long is the growing season in Poquoson city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poquoson city sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 24, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poquoson city?
The federal record around Poquoson city is light — 22 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Poquoson city's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poquoson city's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Virginia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Poquoson city’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Poquoson city's own scale — its own ~282-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 22 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poquoson city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Poquoson city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~282-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Poquoson cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 22 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Poquoson city's boundary and the 9,828 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Poquoson city sitting wholly inside the Middle Atlantic Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Poquoson city for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Poquoson city — the ~282 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poquoson city's 9,828 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 22 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Poquoson cityread your own land →