Prices Fork, Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prices Fork, 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 Prices Fork 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 Prices Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prices Fork — the short answer
Prices Fork, Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7a is Prices Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prices Fork's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prices Fork
Each reading below is measured for Prices Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrices Fork runs about 203 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
MeasuredPrices Fork sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Prices Fork is in
Prices Fork sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Prices Fork's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Prices Fork
Every plant below cleared Prices Fork's own zone 7a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prices Fork?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Prices Fork
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Prices Fork, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Prices Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prices Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Prices Fork Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VIRGINIA TECH PRICES FORK RESEARCH FACILITYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- Riverway StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SNUFFYS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Prices Fork Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Cloyd ProspectMining · 0.8 mi
- VIRGINIA TECH MOORE FARMBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Fas Mart 125Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Foxridge ApartmentsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Lower Stroubles Creek WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HUTCHISON MOTOR COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Bell Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prices Fork'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 Prices Fork.
Total Sites
463
within ~10 miles of Prices Fork
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prices Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prices Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prices Fork, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 287 sites within ~10 miles of Prices Fork. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Prices Fork
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 Prices Fork average
Your land is one point inside Prices Fork
Everything above resolves to Prices Fork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Prices Fork Average
Prices Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Prices Fork
- ●One soil character for all of Prices Fork
- ●Frost dates read at Prices Fork's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prices Fork's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prices Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prices Fork, Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prices Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prices Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prices Fork average
How we know this about Prices Fork
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 Prices Fork’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 Prices Fork
When does frost risk typically end in Prices Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prices Fork typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Prices Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prices Fork typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prices Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prices Fork sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prices Fork?
The federal record around Prices Fork is a meaningful one — 463 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (287), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Prices Fork?
From about Sep 26 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 Oct 26 (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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prices Fork's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prices Fork'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 Prices Fork’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Prices Fork's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,292 acres it covers and 463 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prices Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prices Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 26 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 463 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prices Fork, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prices Fork's boundary and the 1,292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prices Fork's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Prices Forklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prices Fork's 1,292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prices Fork's 1,292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prices Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Prices Fork-wide figureread your own land →
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