Beckley, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Beckley, 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 Beckley 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 Beckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beckley — the short answer
Beckley, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 6b is Beckley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beckley's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beckley
Each reading below is measured for Beckley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeckley runs about 196 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
MeasuredBeckley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Beckley is in
Beckley sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beckley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Raleigh County.
What Grows in Beckley
Every plant below cleared Beckley's own zone 6b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beckley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Beckley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Beckley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 55 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beckley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beckley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GO MART STORE #056Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- WJLS RADIO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DERMATOLOGY ASSOCIATES & SURGERY CENTERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BECKLEY SURGERY CENTER INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #11601Brownfields · 1200 ft
- PORTA WELD SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- A PLUS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SEVEN-UP-DR PEPPER BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BECKLEY ORGANIZATIONAL MAINT SHOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- RICHMOND CLEANERS & LAUNDRY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BECKLEY SANITARY BOARDBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FIX-A-DENTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beckley'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 Beckley.
Total Sites
633
within ~10 miles of Beckley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beckley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beckley
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 Beckley
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 Beckley average
Your land is one point inside Beckley
Everything above resolves to Beckley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 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 Beckley Average
Beckley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Beckley
- ●One soil character for all of Beckley
- ●Frost dates read at Beckley's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beckley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beckley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beckley, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beckley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beckley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beckley average
How we know this about Beckley
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 Beckley’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 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 Beckley
When does frost risk typically end in Beckley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beckley typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Beckley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beckley typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beckley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beckley sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beckley?
The federal record around Beckley is a meaningful one — 633 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (345), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Beckley?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beckley's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beckley'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 Beckley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beckley's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,079 acres it covers and 633 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beckley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beckley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 633 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beckley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beckley's boundary and the 6,079 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beckley's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Beckley 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 Beckley's 6,079 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Raleigh County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Raleigh 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 Raleigh County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beckley's 6,079 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beckley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,079 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Beckley-wide figureread your own land →
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