Ohio County, in West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Ohio 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
Ohio County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ohio 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 Ohio County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ohio County — the short answer
Ohio County, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 68K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 68K 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 Ohio County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ohio County's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ohio County
Across a year, Ohio County accumulates about 2,843 growing degree days above 50°F, about 167 fewer than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 15 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 Ohio County
Across Ohio County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Westmoreland, Clarksburg, 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
5%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ohio County
The USDA soil survey maps 79% of Ohio County as well drained — but another 7% drains differently: 7% moderately well drained.
Westmoreland is the most extensive named soil at 79% of mapped acres, then Clarksburg (3%) and Guernsey (2%).
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 Ohio County
Each reading below is measured for Ohio 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 Ohio 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 Ohio 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
MeasuredOhio County runs about 213 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
MeasuredOhio 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 Ohio County is in
Ohio 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 Ohio County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ohio County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 213-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 Ohio County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Ohio County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Ohio County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Ohio County
USGS estimates 615 lb of Glyphosate on Ohio County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (436 lb) and Atrazine (419 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 Ohio County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ohio County — 347 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Ohio 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 Ohio County
Closest first, across Ohio County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ohi-0352Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MULLS GROCERY/OLLIE'S HILLTOP BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- OGLEBAY SPIEDEL GOLF GARAGEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- OGLEBAY MECHANIC GARAGEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PARK PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VINCENT A & JOHN E GRIFFITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SAVAGE CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- OGLEBAY PARK UPPER SERV BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SPEIDEL GOLF GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- VEHICLE MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HOCKS BAR & GRILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SISTERS OF ST JOSEPHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ohio 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 Ohio County.
Total Sites
347
across Ohio County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Ohio County
Severity Distribution
across Ohio 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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Ohio 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 Ohio County average
Your land is one point inside Ohio County
Everything above resolves to Ohio County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 68K 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 Ohio County Average
Ohio County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ohio County
- ●One soil character for all of Ohio County
- ●Frost dates read at Ohio County's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ohio County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ohio County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ohio County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ohio County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ohio County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ohio County average
How we know this about Ohio 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 Ohio County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ohio County
When does frost risk typically end in Ohio County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ohio County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Ohio County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ohio County sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 22, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ohio County?
The federal record around Ohio County is a meaningful one — 347 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (201), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Ohio County's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ohio 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 Ohio County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Ohio County's own scale — its own ~213-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 347 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ohio County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ohio County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ohio CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 347 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ohio County's boundary and the 67,863 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ohio County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Ohio County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ohio 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 Ohio County — the ~213 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 Ohio County's 67,863 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 347 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 Ohio Countyread your own land →