Arbovale, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, 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 Arbovale, 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 Arbovale 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 Arbovale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arbovale — the short answer
Arbovale, West Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 373 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 373 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 6a is Arbovale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arbovale's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arbovale
Each reading below is measured for Arbovale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArbovale runs about 166 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredArbovale sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Arbovale is in
Arbovale sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arbovale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pocahontas County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arbovale
Every plant below cleared Arbovale's own zone 6a and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arbovale?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Arbovale
Survey cells within 31 miles of Arbovale checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Arbovale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arbovale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRENT'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GREEN BANK OBSERVATORYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Poc-0262Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- COMMUNITY DENTAL CARE OF GREEN BANKBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Poc-0193Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- THE BEARS DEN LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Poc-0092Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- NEIL SYNDER PROPERTY / KERR SERV ST (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SHEETS GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- S/S LOC #29542Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GREENBANK SUB STA 08382Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MOORE'S READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arbovale'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 Arbovale.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Arbovale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arbovale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arbovale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arbovale, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Arbovale. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Arbovale
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 Arbovale average
Your land is one point inside Arbovale
Everything above resolves to Arbovale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 373 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 Arbovale Average
Arbovale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Arbovale
- ●One soil character for all of Arbovale
- ●Frost dates read at Arbovale's scale: May 3 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arbovale's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arbovale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arbovale, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arbovale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arbovale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arbovale average
How we know this about Arbovale
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 Arbovale’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 Arbovale
When does frost risk typically end in Arbovale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arbovale typically lands around May 3, 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 May 24.
When is the first frost in Arbovale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arbovale typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arbovale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arbovale sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 2, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arbovale?
The federal record around Arbovale shows 70 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Arbovale?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arbovale's scale — its 6a band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arbovale'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 Arbovale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Arbovale's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 373 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arbovale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arbovale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 16 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arbovale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arbovale's boundary and the 373 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arbovale sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Arbovale checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arbovale's 373 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pocahontas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pocahontas County
- The growing challenges every West Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom West Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pocahontas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arbovale's 373 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arbovale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 373 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 Arbovale-wide figureread your own land →