Occoquan, Virginia, 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 Occoquan, 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 Occoquan 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 Occoquan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Occoquan — the short answer
Occoquan, Virginia: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 111 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 111 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 Occoquan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Occoquan's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Occoquan
Each reading below is measured for Occoquan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOccoquan runs about 234 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
MeasuredOccoquan 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 Occoquan is in
Occoquan sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Occoquan's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Prince William County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Occoquan
Every plant below cleared Occoquan's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Occoquan?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 12 — 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 Occoquan
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Occoquan, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Occoquan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Occoquan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE LYNN COMPANY; INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OCCOQUAN BOAT CLUB & MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HIGH DAM - FORMER OCCOQUAN WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PROMISE CLEANERSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- PMG NVA Shell 9034Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VULCAN CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS, LPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- VIRGINIA PAVING COMPANY - OCCOQUAN PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- Vulcan Materials - Graham Virginia QuarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Virginia Paving Company Occoquan PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- THE DRY CLEANERBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Old Bridge Fast FuelsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Occoquan Pump Station L-14Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Occoquan'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 Occoquan.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Occoquan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Occoquan
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Occoquan
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 Occoquan average
Your land is one point inside Occoquan
Everything above resolves to Occoquan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 111 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 Occoquan Average
Occoquan Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Occoquan
- ●One soil character for all of Occoquan
- ●Frost dates read at Occoquan's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Occoquan's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Occoquan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Occoquan, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Occoquan averages can't show:
We read public map data around Occoquan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Occoquan average
How we know this about Occoquan
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 Occoquan’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 Occoquan
When does frost risk typically end in Occoquan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Occoquan 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.
When is the first frost in Occoquan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Occoquan typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Occoquan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Occoquan sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 29, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Occoquan?
The federal record around Occoquan is a meaningful one — 1,244 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (624), 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 Occoquan?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Occoquan's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Occoquan'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 Occoquan’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Occoquan's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 111 acres it covers and 1,244 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Occoquan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Occoquan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 12 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,244 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Occoquan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Occoquan's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Occoquan sits in the Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Occoquanlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Occoquan's 111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Prince William County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Prince William County
- The growing challenges every Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Prince William County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Occoquan's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Occoquan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 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 Occoquan-wide figureread your own land →
More in Virginia
Nearby growing guides