Doddridge County, in West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Doddridge 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
Doddridge County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Doddridge 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 Doddridge County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Doddridge County — the short answer
Doddridge County, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 205K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 205K 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 Doddridge County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Doddridge County's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Doddridge County
Across a year, Doddridge County accumulates about 3,077 growing degree days above 50°F, about 67 more than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 32 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 Doddridge County
Across Doddridge County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Gilpin, Peabody, and Sensabaugh are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Doddridge County
The USDA soil survey maps 99% of Doddridge County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained.
Gilpin is the most extensive named soil at 55% of mapped acres, then Peabody (32%) and Sensabaugh (6%).
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 Doddridge County
Each reading below is measured for Doddridge 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 Doddridge County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Doddridge County runs about pH 4.7–5.3, 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
MeasuredDoddridge County 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
MeasuredDoddridge 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 Doddridge County is in
Doddridge 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 Doddridge County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Doddridge County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 196-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 Doddridge County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Doddridge County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Doddridge County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Doddridge County
USGS estimates 295 lb of Dicamba on Doddridge County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (257 lb) and Glyphosate (255 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 Doddridge County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Doddridge County — 80 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Doddridge County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Doddridge County
Closest first, across Doddridge County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dod-0070Nitrate · 2000 ft
- UP SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION LLC - SHERWOOD COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SPENCER ENTERPRISE (*SJ/REG93/CAP)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Dod-0055Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SHERWOOD GAS PLANTBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SHERWOOD GAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- COASTAL LUMBER CO - SMITHBURGToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- SMITHBURG GAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- PAR MAR $52Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WEST UNION COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- GERALD TRAVIS 480-082Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Doddridge 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 Doddridge County.
Total Sites
80
across Doddridge County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Doddridge County
Severity Distribution
across Doddridge County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Doddridge County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 24 sites across Doddridge County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Doddridge 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 Doddridge County average
Your land is one point inside Doddridge County
Everything above resolves to Doddridge County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 205K 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 Doddridge County Average
Doddridge County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Doddridge County
- ●One soil character for all of Doddridge County
- ●Frost dates read at Doddridge County's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Doddridge County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Doddridge County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Doddridge County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Doddridge County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Doddridge County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Doddridge County average
How we know this about Doddridge 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 Doddridge County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Doddridge County
When does frost risk typically end in Doddridge County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Doddridge County typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Doddridge County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Doddridge County sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 14, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Doddridge County?
The federal record around Doddridge County shows 80 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Doddridge County's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Doddridge 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 Doddridge County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Doddridge County's own scale — its own ~196-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 80 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Doddridge County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Doddridge County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Doddridge CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 80 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Doddridge County's boundary and the 204,622 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Doddridge County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Doddridge 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 Doddridge County — the ~196 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 Doddridge County's 204,622 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 80 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 Doddridge Countyread your own land →