Beech Bottom, West 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.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Beech Bottom, 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 Beech Bottom 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 Beech Bottom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Beech Bottom — the short answer
Beech Bottom, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 744 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 744 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 Beech Bottom's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beech Bottom's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Beech Bottom
Each reading below is measured for Beech Bottom itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBeech Bottom runs about 221 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
MeasuredBeech Bottom 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 Beech Bottom is in
Beech Bottom sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Beech Bottom's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brooke County.
What Grows in Beech Bottom
Every plant below cleared Beech Bottom's own zone 7a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Beech Bottom?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Beech Bottom
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Beech Bottom, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Beech Bottom
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Beech Bottom. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF WELLSBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WINDSOR COAL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BEECH BOTTOM PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BEECH BOTTOM CULVERT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GERALD GASMIRE PROPERTY/NO FORMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SPIRIT SERVICES OF WV LLCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- RG STEEL WHEELING LLC - BEECH BOTTOM PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- VARIETY GLASSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- JUPITER ALUMINUM CORPORATION, JUPITER COIL COATINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WELLSBURG CENTER LLC DBA VALLEY HAVENBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Brk-0038Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- BROOKE COUNTY HARBOR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beech Bottom'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 Beech Bottom.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Beech Bottom
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Beech Bottom
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Beech Bottom, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Beech Bottom — PFAS (8 sites) and Superfund (9 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 Beech Bottom
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 Beech Bottom average
Your land is one point inside Beech Bottom
Everything above resolves to Beech Bottom as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 744 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 Beech Bottom Average
Beech Bottom Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Beech Bottom
- ●One soil character for all of Beech Bottom
- ●Frost dates read at Beech Bottom's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beech Bottom's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Beech Bottom
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beech Bottom, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beech Bottom averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beech Bottom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beech Bottom average
How we know this about Beech Bottom
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 Beech Bottom’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 Beech Bottom
When does frost risk typically end in Beech Bottom?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beech Bottom typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Beech Bottom?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Beech Bottom typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Beech Bottom?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beech Bottom sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 27, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beech Bottom?
The federal record around Beech Bottom is a meaningful one — 376 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (213), 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 Beech Bottom?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Beech Bottom's scale — its 7a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beech Bottom'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 Beech Bottom’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Beech Bottom's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 744 acres it covers and 376 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beech Bottom's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beech Bottom's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 10 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 376 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Beech Bottom, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Beech Bottom's boundary and the 744 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Beech Bottom's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Beech Bottomlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Beech Bottom's 744 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brooke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brooke 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 Brooke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beech Bottom's 744 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Beech Bottom you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 744 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 Beech Bottom-wide figureread your own land →
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