Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Gallipolis Ferry, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Gallipolis Ferry lot. 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 Gallipolis Ferry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gallipolis Ferry — the short answer
Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Gallipolis Ferry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gallipolis Ferry's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gallipolis Ferry
Each reading below is measured for Gallipolis Ferry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGallipolis Ferry runs about 218 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
MeasuredGallipolis Ferry 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 Gallipolis Ferry is in
Gallipolis Ferry sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gallipolis Ferry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mason County.
What Grows in Gallipolis Ferry
Every plant below cleared Gallipolis Ferry's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gallipolis Ferry?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Gallipolis Ferry
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gallipolis Ferry checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 86 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gallipolis Ferry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gallipolis Ferry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ICL-IP AMERICA INC. GALLIPOLIS FERRY SITEBrownfields · 850 ft
- ICL-IP AMERICA INC. GALLIPOLIS FERRY SITEToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- ICL-NORTH AMERICA INC - GALLIPOLIS FERRY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- ICL-IP AMERICA INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- CRACKER BOXUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GALLIPOLIS LOCKS (OHIO RIVER)Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #17677Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Mas-0959Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- LETART CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FOOD MART 218Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Mas-0867Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- LETART CORPORATION (PLANT NO 1)Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gallipolis Ferry'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 Gallipolis Ferry.
Total Sites
244
within ~10 miles of Gallipolis Ferry
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gallipolis Ferry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gallipolis Ferry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gallipolis Ferry, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gallipolis Ferry — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Gallipolis Ferry
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 Gallipolis Ferry average
Your land is one point inside Gallipolis Ferry
Everything above resolves to Gallipolis Ferry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Gallipolis Ferry Average
Gallipolis Ferry Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Gallipolis Ferry
- ●One soil character for all of Gallipolis Ferry
- ●Frost dates read at Gallipolis Ferry's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gallipolis Ferry's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gallipolis Ferry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gallipolis Ferry, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gallipolis Ferry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gallipolis Ferry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gallipolis Ferry average
How we know this about Gallipolis Ferry
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Gallipolis Ferry’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Gallipolis Ferry
When does frost risk typically end in Gallipolis Ferry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gallipolis Ferry typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Gallipolis Ferry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gallipolis Ferry typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gallipolis Ferry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gallipolis Ferry sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 25, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gallipolis Ferry?
The federal record around Gallipolis Ferry is a meaningful one — 244 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (121), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gallipolis Ferry?
From about Oct 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gallipolis Ferry's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gallipolis Ferry's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Gallipolis Ferry’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gallipolis Ferry's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,456 acres it covers and 244 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gallipolis Ferry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gallipolis Ferry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 8 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 244 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gallipolis Ferry, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gallipolis Ferry's boundary and the 1,456 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gallipolis Ferry's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gallipolis Ferry checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gallipolis Ferry's 1,456 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mason County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mason County
- The growing challenges every West Virginia grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom West Virginia
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Mason County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gallipolis Ferry's 1,456 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gallipolis Ferry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,456 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Gallipolis Ferry-wide figureread your own land →