Brooke County, in West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Brooke County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Brooke County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Brooke County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Brooke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Brooke County — the short answer
Brooke County, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 57K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 57K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Brooke County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brooke County's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Brooke County
Across a year, Brooke County accumulates about 2,936 growing degree days above 50°F, about 74 fewer than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 20 of West Virginia’s 55 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Brooke County
Across Brooke County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Westmoreland, Gilpin, and Guernsey are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.7, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Brooke County
The USDA soil survey maps 69% of Brooke County as well drained — but another 8% drains differently: 8% moderately well drained.
Westmoreland is the most extensive named soil at 54% of mapped acres, then Gilpin (8%) and Guernsey (4%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Brooke County
Each reading below is measured for Brooke County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Brooke County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Brooke County runs about pH 5.7, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBrooke County runs about 218 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
MeasuredBrooke County 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 Brooke County is in
Brooke County sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Brooke County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Brooke County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 218-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile.
Is it too late to plant in Brooke County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Brooke County
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Brooke County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Brooke County
USGS estimates 338 lb of Glyphosate on Brooke County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Chlorpyrifos (194 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (150 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Brooke County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Brooke County — 193 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Brooke County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Brooke County
Closest first, across Brooke County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WASHINGTON PIKE PSDPFAS · 0.9 mi
- FOLLANSBEE HOOVERSON HEIGHTSPFAS · 0.9 mi
- WELLSBURG, CITY OFPFAS · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #12011Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #17084Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- WELLSBURG STATE POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- DR. E. ROBERT MARKS - FAMILY PRACTICEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- HOODS PHARMACY - DBA TRAUBERTS PHARMACYBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS #7430Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8556Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- SNYDER'S CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- AUTO MEDIC AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brooke County'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 Brooke County.
Sources Checked
across Brooke County
Severity Distribution
across Brooke County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brooke County, two things run higher than the national average across Brooke County — Toxics Release Inventory (26 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Brooke County
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 Brooke County average
Your land is one point inside Brooke County
Everything above resolves to Brooke County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 57K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Brooke County Average
Brooke County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Brooke County
- ●One soil character for all of Brooke County
- ●Frost dates read at Brooke County's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brooke County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Brooke County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brooke County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brooke County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brooke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brooke County average
How we know this about Brooke County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Brooke County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Brooke County
When does frost risk typically end in Brooke County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brooke County typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 25.
How long is the growing season in Brooke County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brooke County sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 25, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brooke County?
The federal record around Brooke County is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest PFAS record about 0.9 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.
Everything above is measured at Brooke County's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brooke County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads West Virginia's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Brooke County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Brooke County's own scale — its own ~218-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 193 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brooke County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brooke County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Brooke CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 193 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Brooke County's boundary and the 56,983 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brooke County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Brooke County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every West Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom West Virginia
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Brooke County — the ~218 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brooke County's 56,983 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 193 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Brooke Countyread your own land →