Capon Bridge, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Capon Bridge, 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 Capon Bridge 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 Capon Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Capon Bridge — the short answer
Capon Bridge, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 452 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 452 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 Capon Bridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Capon Bridge's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Capon Bridge
Each reading below is measured for Capon Bridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCapon Bridge runs about 204 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
MeasuredCapon Bridge 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 Capon Bridge is in
Capon Bridge sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Capon Bridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampshire County.
What Grows in Capon Bridge
Every plant below cleared Capon Bridge's own zone 7a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Capon Bridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Capon Bridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Capon Bridge, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Capon Bridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Capon Bridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hmp-0159Nitrate · 800 ft
- CAPON BRIDGE SUB STA 05142Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CAPON BRIDGE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BAKER EQUIP COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BULLIS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- S J MORRIS CO/NO FORMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CAPON BRIDGE SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #5721Brownfields · 2400 ft
- CAPON VALLEY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NORTH RIVER MILLS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CAPON BRIDGE JR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Hmp-0385Nitrate · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Capon Bridge'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 Capon Bridge.
Total Sites
94
within ~10 miles of Capon Bridge
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Capon Bridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Capon Bridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Capon Bridge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Capon Bridge — Nitrate (27 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (60 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Capon Bridge
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 Capon Bridge average
Your land is one point inside Capon Bridge
Everything above resolves to Capon Bridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 452 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 Capon Bridge Average
Capon Bridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Capon Bridge
- ●One soil character for all of Capon Bridge
- ●Frost dates read at Capon Bridge's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Capon Bridge's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Capon Bridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Capon Bridge, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Capon Bridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Capon Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Capon Bridge average
How we know this about Capon Bridge
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 Capon Bridge’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 Capon Bridge
When does frost risk typically end in Capon Bridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Capon Bridge typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Capon Bridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Capon Bridge typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Capon Bridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Capon Bridge sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 14, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Capon Bridge?
The federal record around Capon Bridge shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Capon Bridge?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Capon Bridge's scale — its 7a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Capon Bridge'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 Capon Bridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Capon Bridge's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 452 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Capon Bridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Capon Bridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 28 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Capon Bridge, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Capon Bridge's boundary and the 452 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Capon Bridge's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Capon Bridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Capon Bridge's 452 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampshire County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampshire 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 Hampshire County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Capon Bridge's 452 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Capon Bridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 452 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Capon Bridge-wide figureread your own land →
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