Mingo County, in West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Mingo 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
Mingo County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Mingo 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 Mingo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mingo County — the short answer
Mingo County, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 271K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 271K 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 Mingo County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mingo County's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Mingo County
Across a year, Mingo County accumulates about 3,622 growing degree days above 50°F, about 612 more than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 53 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 Mingo County
Across Mingo County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Matewan, Highsplint, and Guyandotte are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very channery sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.0–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
3%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Mingo County
The USDA soil survey maps 94% of Mingo County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Matewan is the most extensive named soil at 36% of mapped acres, then Highsplint (27%) and Guyandotte (20%).
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 Mingo County
Each reading below is measured for Mingo 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 Mingo County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Mingo County runs about pH 4.0–5.5, 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
MeasuredMingo County runs about 229 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
MeasuredMingo 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 Mingo County is in
Mingo County sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Mingo County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Mingo County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 229-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 Mingo County?
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 Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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 Mingo County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mingo County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 79 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Mingo County
USGS estimates 222 lb of Triclopyr on Mingo County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (190 lb) and 2,4-d (58 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 Mingo County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Mingo County — 375 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Mingo 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 Mingo County
Closest first, across Mingo County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mig-0070Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Mig-0075Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- CAREWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Mig-0141Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- EVANS AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Mig-0073Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- CAUDILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BAISDEN ASHLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- B J'S ONESTOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- EVANS AUTO PARTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SPENCE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- R & D GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mingo 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 Mingo County.
Total Sites
375
across Mingo County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Mingo County
Severity Distribution
across Mingo County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mingo County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 172 sites across Mingo County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Mingo 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 Mingo County average
Your land is one point inside Mingo County
Everything above resolves to Mingo County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 271K 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 Mingo County Average
Mingo County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mingo County
- ●One soil character for all of Mingo County
- ●Frost dates read at Mingo County's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mingo County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Mingo County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mingo County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mingo County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mingo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mingo County average
How we know this about Mingo 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 Mingo County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Mingo County
When does frost risk typically end in Mingo County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mingo County typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Mingo County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mingo County sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 27, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mingo County?
The federal record around Mingo County is a meaningful one — 375 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (172), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Mingo County's scale — its 7a band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mingo 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 Mingo County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Mingo County's own scale — its own ~229-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 375 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mingo County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mingo County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Mingo CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 375 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Mingo County's boundary and the 270,797 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mingo County sitting wholly inside the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Mingo 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 Mingo County — the ~229 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 Mingo County's 270,797 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 375 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 Mingo Countyread your own land →