Upshur County, in West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Upshur 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
Upshur County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Upshur 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 Upshur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Upshur County — the short answer
Upshur County, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 227K 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 227K 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 Upshur County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Upshur County's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Upshur County
Across a year, Upshur County accumulates about 2,790 growing degree days above 50°F, about 220 fewer than the middle West Virginia county — ahead of 13 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 Upshur County
Across Upshur County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Gilpin, Highsplint, and Buchanan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.5–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
1%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Upshur County
The USDA soil survey maps 76% of Upshur County as well drained — but another 23% drains differently: 20% moderately well drained, 2% somewhat poorly drained.
Gilpin is the most extensive named soil at 38% of mapped acres, then Highsplint (14%) and Buchanan (11%).
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 Upshur County
Each reading below is measured for Upshur 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 Upshur 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 Upshur County runs about pH 4.5–5.3, 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
MeasuredUpshur County runs about 194 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
MeasuredUpshur 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 Upshur County is in
Upshur 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 Upshur County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Upshur County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 194-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 Upshur 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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Upshur County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Upshur County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 35 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly21 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Upshur County
USGS estimates 437 lb of Dicamba on Upshur County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (389 lb) and 2,4-d (326 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 Upshur County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Upshur County — 239 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Upshur 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 Upshur County
Closest first, across Upshur County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ABANDONED STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- COUNTRY FRESH FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- UPSHUR CO SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- SHOP & GO MART #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GATRELL'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- BADGER COAL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Ups-0093Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- HWM TRUCKINGBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #15304Brownfields · 3.2 mi
- JOHNSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Ups-0173Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- ED AREY & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Upshur 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 Upshur County.
Total Sites
239
across Upshur County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Upshur County
Severity Distribution
across Upshur 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 Upshur 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 Upshur County average
Your land is one point inside Upshur County
Everything above resolves to Upshur County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 227K 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 Upshur County Average
Upshur County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Upshur County
- ●One soil character for all of Upshur County
- ●Frost dates read at Upshur County's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Upshur County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Upshur County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Upshur County, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Upshur County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Upshur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Upshur County average
How we know this about Upshur 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 Upshur County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Upshur County
When does frost risk typically end in Upshur County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Upshur 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 Upshur County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Upshur County sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 12, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Upshur County?
The federal record around Upshur County is a meaningful one — 239 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 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 Upshur County's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Upshur 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 Upshur County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Upshur County's own scale — its own ~194-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 239 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Upshur County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Upshur County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Upshur CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 239 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Upshur County's boundary and the 226,968 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Upshur County spans, Central Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Upshur County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Upshur 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 Upshur County — the ~194 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 Upshur County's 226,968 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 239 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 Upshur Countyread your own land →