Kanawha County, in 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Kanawha County lies within the Kanawha / Ohio Valley (Metro Valley) and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kanawha County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kanawha 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 Kanawha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kanawha County — the short answer
Kanawha County, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 577K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 577K 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 7a is Kanawha County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kanawha County's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Kanawha County
Across a year, Kanawha County accumulates about 3,478 growing degree days above 50°F, about 468 more than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 48 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 Kanawha County
Across Kanawha County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Gilpin, Clymer, and Dekalb are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
2%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kanawha County
The USDA soil survey maps 91% of Kanawha County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained.
Gilpin is the most extensive named soil at 28% of mapped acres, then Clymer (22%) and Dekalb (19%).
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 Kanawha County
Each reading below is measured for Kanawha 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 Kanawha 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 Kanawha County runs about pH 4.6–5.5, 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
MeasuredKanawha County runs about 219 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
MeasuredKanawha County 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 Kanawha County is in
Kanawha County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Appalachians (58%) and Western Allegheny Plateau (42%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Kanawha County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kanawha County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 219-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 Kanawha County?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Kanawha County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Kanawha County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 98 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly54 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kanawha County
USGS estimates 1,045 lb of Triclopyr on Kanawha County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (858 lb) and 2,4-d (280 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 Kanawha County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kanawha County — 1,552 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 16 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). 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 Kanawha 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 Kanawha County
Closest first, across Kanawha County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kan-0831Nitrate · 2000 ft
- MOLES SALES & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6622Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SPEEDWAY #9786Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MOLES GULF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VALLEY TRUCKING, INC.Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- OWM (SHELL)Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- CAMPBELLS CREEK FOOD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- COLONIAL EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- THE STORE (*SJ/REGTO93/CAP)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Kan-0929Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- TREATMENT FACILITY & PUMP STATIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kanawha 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 Kanawha County.
Total Sites
1,552
across Kanawha County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Kanawha County
Severity Distribution
across Kanawha County
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 Kanawha 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 Kanawha County average
Your land is one point inside Kanawha County
Everything above resolves to Kanawha County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 577K 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 Kanawha County Average
Kanawha County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Kanawha County
- ●One soil character for all of Kanawha County
- ●Frost dates read at Kanawha County's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kanawha County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kanawha County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kanawha County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kanawha County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kanawha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kanawha County average
How we know this about Kanawha 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 Kanawha County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kanawha County
When does frost risk typically end in Kanawha County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kanawha County typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Kanawha County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kanawha County sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 23, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kanawha County?
The federal record around Kanawha County is a meaningful one — 1,552 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (838), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Kanawha County's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kanawha 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 Kanawha County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kanawha County's own scale — its own ~219-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,552 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kanawha County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kanawha County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kanawha CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,552 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kanawha County's boundary and the 577,112 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Kanawha County spans, Central Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kanawha County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kanawha 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 Kanawha County — the ~219 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 Kanawha County's 577,112 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,552 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 Kanawha Countyread your own land →