Roane County, in West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Roane 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
Roane County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Roane 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 Roane County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Roane County — the short answer
Roane County, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 309K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 309K 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 Roane County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roane County's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Roane County
Across a year, Roane County accumulates about 3,101 growing degree days above 50°F, about 91 more than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 34 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 Roane County
Across Roane County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Gilpin, Peabody, and Upshur 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 C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Roane County
The USDA soil survey maps 99% of Roane County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained.
Gilpin is the most extensive named soil at 47% of mapped acres, then Peabody (21%) and Upshur (14%).
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 Roane County
Each reading below is measured for Roane 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 Roane 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 Roane 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
MeasuredRoane County runs about 201 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
MeasuredRoane 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 Roane County is in
Roane 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 Roane County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Roane County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 201-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 Roane County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Roane County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Roane County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 85 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Roane County
USGS estimates 7,897 lb of Triclopyr on Roane County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (5,445 lb) and 2,4-d (1,992 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 Roane County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Roane County — 147 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Roane 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 Roane County
Closest first, across Roane County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- M E WALKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HARRY C BOGGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DA FRESHWATER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CONTRACTOR SERVICES INC OF WVBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- ROANE CO HQ 03441Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Roa-0050Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- WVDOH - ROANE CO HEADQUARTERSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- SPENCER WATER DEPTPFAS · 3.0 mi
- ANDERSON'S EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Roa-0162Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- HANDI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ARMACELL LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roane 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 Roane County.
Total Sites
147
across Roane County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Roane County
Severity Distribution
across Roane County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Roane 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 Roane County average
Your land is one point inside Roane County
Everything above resolves to Roane County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 309K 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 Roane County Average
Roane County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Roane County
- ●One soil character for all of Roane County
- ●Frost dates read at Roane County's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roane County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Roane County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roane County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roane County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roane County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roane County average
How we know this about Roane 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 Roane County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Roane County
When does frost risk typically end in Roane County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roane County typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Roane County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roane County sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 15, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roane County?
The federal record around Roane County shows 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Roane County's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roane 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 Roane County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Roane County's own scale — its own ~201-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 147 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roane County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roane County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Roane CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 147 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Roane County's boundary and the 309,480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Roane County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Roane County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Roane 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 Roane County — the ~201 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 Roane County's 309,480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 147 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 Roane Countyread your own land →