Salem city, in Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Salem city lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Salem city holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Salem 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 Salem city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Salem city — the short answer
Salem city, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 9K 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 7b is Salem city's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salem city's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Salem city
Across a year, Salem city accumulates about 3,743 growing degree days above 50°F, about 9 more than the middle Virginia county — ahead of 67 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 2,312 hours below 45°F, 126 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 Salem County
Across Salem County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Dekalb, Weikert, and Frederick are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.1–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Salem city
The USDA soil survey maps 66% of Salem city as well drained — but another 33% drains differently: 32% somewhat excessively drained, 1% poorly drained.
Dekalb is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Weikert (13%) and Frederick (9%).
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 Salem city
Each reading below is measured for Salem 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 Salem city are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Salem city runs about pH 5.1–5.3, 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
Season length
MeasuredSalem city runs about 235 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
MeasuredSalem city 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 Salem city is in
Salem city sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Salem city
We scored all 1,086 plants against Salem city's own USDA zone 7b and its own 235-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 Salem city?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Salem city
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Salem city, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Salem County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Salem County — 272 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Salem County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Salem city
Closest first, across Salem County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Roanoke Co School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- ROANOKE COUNTY SCHOOLSBrownfields · 75 ft
- Roanoke County - Garage 2Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ROANOKE CO SCHOOLS MAINT DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- VIRGINIA LIFT TRUCK, INC.Brownfields · 450 ft
- THE LUBE CENTERBrownfields · 450 ft
- Pillis Brothers Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DOYLES AUTOCOOL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- VDOT - SALEM RESIDENCY LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 7-Eleven 20800Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- NOVOZYMES BIOLOGICALS INC - 620 CHAPMANBrownfields · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salem 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 Salem city.
Total Sites
272
across Salem County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Salem County
Severity Distribution
across Salem County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Salem city, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 19 sites across Salem County. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Salem 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 Salem city average
Your land is one point inside Salem city
Everything above resolves to Salem city as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 9K 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 Salem city Average
Salem city Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Salem city
- ●One soil character for all of Salem city
- ●Frost dates read at Salem city's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salem city's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Salem city
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salem city, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salem city averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salem city — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salem city average
How we know this about Salem 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 Salem city carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Salem city
When does frost risk typically end in Salem city?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salem city typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Salem city?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salem city sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 30, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salem city?
The federal record around Salem city is a meaningful one — 272 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (158), 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.
Everything above is measured at Salem city's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salem 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 Salem city’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Salem city's own scale — its own ~235-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 272 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salem city's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salem city's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Salem cityUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 272 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Salem city's boundary and the 9,291 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Salem city sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Salem 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 Salem city — the ~235 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 Salem city's 9,291 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 272 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 Salem cityread your own land →