Keyser, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Keyser, 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 Keyser 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 Keyser — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Keyser — the short answer
Keyser, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Keyser's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keyser's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keyser
Each reading below is measured for Keyser itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeyser runs about 198 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
MeasuredKeyser 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 Keyser is in
Keyser sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Keyser's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mineral County.
What Grows in Keyser
Every plant below cleared Keyser's own zone 7a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keyser?
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 Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Keyser
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Keyser, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Keyser
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keyser. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WVU-EHS POTOMAC STATE COLLEGEBrownfields · 200 ft
- RAY'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- B & B CONCRETE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FAIRFAX SAND & STONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- J R SPENCER TRUCKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CLAREY ST LEARNING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DUKES PLACE-ELMER WEASENFORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CSX TRANS RAILYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DELMER L SCHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- KESSEL LUMBER SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FAMILY PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- JT NO 2 MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keyser'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 Keyser.
Total Sites
218
within ~10 miles of Keyser
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keyser
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keyser
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 Keyser
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 Keyser average
Your land is one point inside Keyser
Everything above resolves to Keyser 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 city 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 Keyser Average
Keyser Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Keyser
- ●One soil character for all of Keyser
- ●Frost dates read at Keyser's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keyser's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keyser
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keyser, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keyser averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keyser — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keyser average
How we know this about Keyser
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Keyser’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Keyser
When does frost risk typically end in Keyser?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keyser typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Keyser?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keyser typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keyser?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keyser sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 13, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keyser?
The federal record around Keyser is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Keyser?
From about Sep 27 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 Oct 27 (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 Oct 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keyser's scale — its 7a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keyser'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 Keyser’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Keyser's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,263 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keyser's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keyser's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 27 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keyser, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keyser's boundary and the 1,263 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keyser's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Keyserlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keyser's 1,263 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mineral County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mineral 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 Mineral County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keyser's 1,263 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keyser you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,263 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Keyser-wide figureread your own land →
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