DuPont, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in DuPont, 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 DuPont 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 DuPont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
DuPont — the short answer
DuPont, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pierce County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Pierce County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is DuPont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DuPont's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in DuPont
Each reading below is measured for DuPont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDuPont runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pierce County, the closest normal to DuPont) — 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDuPont sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 DuPont is in
DuPont sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at DuPont's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pierce County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in DuPont
Every plant below cleared DuPont's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in DuPont?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near DuPont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of DuPont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEYERHAEUSER COMPANY DUPONTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AMAZON.COM DEDC LLC DUPONTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- DUPONT WATER SYSTEM CITY OFPFAS · 0.7 mi
- 19N/01E-26A01Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- FEDEX GROUND OLYMPIABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- GLACIER NORTHWEST PIONEER AGGREGATESToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- CHEVRON STATION 307178Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AMAZON COM SERVICES LLC BFI9Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- 16N/04E-35A01Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- BASALITE CONCRETE PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- CHEVRON 307178Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- FORT LEWIS (LANDFILL NO. 5)Superfund · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DuPont'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 DuPont.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of DuPont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of DuPont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DuPont, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of DuPont — PFAS (16 sites) and Superfund (15 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in DuPont
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 DuPont average
Your land is one point inside DuPont
Everything above resolves to DuPont as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pierce County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 DuPont Average
DuPont Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across DuPont
- ●One soil character for all of DuPont
- ●Frost dates read at DuPont's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DuPont's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in DuPont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DuPont, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DuPont averages can't show:
We read public map data around DuPont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DuPont average
How we know this about DuPont
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 Pierce County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 DuPont
When does frost risk typically end in DuPont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DuPont typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in DuPont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in DuPont typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in DuPont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DuPont sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 9, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DuPont?
The federal record around DuPont runs heavier than most — 687 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (379), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in DuPont?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at DuPont's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DuPont'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 DuPont’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at DuPont's own scale — the 3,725 acres it covers and 687 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DuPont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 687 documented contamination sites on the federal record near DuPont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- DuPont's boundary and the 3,725 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- DuPont sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — DuPont has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pierce County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so DuPont's 3,725 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pierce County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pierce County
- The growing challenges every Washington grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Washington
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pierce County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among DuPont's 3,725 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of DuPont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,725 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 DuPont-wide figureread your own land →