Lester, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lester, 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 Lester 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 Lester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lester — the short answer
Lester, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 321 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 321 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 6b is Lester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lester's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lester
Each reading below is measured for Lester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLester runs about 190 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
MeasuredLester 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 Lester is in
Lester sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Raleigh County.
What Grows in Lester
Every plant below cleared Lester's own zone 6b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lester?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Lester
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lester checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PETE O'NEILUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KEENE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SOPHIA TECHNIFAB SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NORFOLK & WESTERN RAILWAY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DON WAHLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FORMERLY B & G SHELL/ NO FORMS BCAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DWAINE A ACORD (THE KORNER)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TONER CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LIVELY ENGINEERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SANDY'S PACKETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Ral-0161Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- LOGAN CO PSD-GREENVILLE SYSTEMPFAS · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lester'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 Lester.
Total Sites
537
within ~10 miles of Lester
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lester
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 Lester
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 Lester average
Your land is one point inside Lester
Everything above resolves to Lester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 321 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 Lester Average
Lester Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lester
- ●One soil character for all of Lester
- ●Frost dates read at Lester's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lester's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lester, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lester average
How we know this about Lester
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 Lester’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 Lester
When does frost risk typically end in Lester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lester typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Lester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lester typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lester sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 10, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lester?
The federal record around Lester is a meaningful one — 537 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (301), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lester?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lester's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lester'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 Lester’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lester's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 321 acres it covers and 537 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 24 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 537 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lester's boundary and the 321 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lester's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lester 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 Lester's 321 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Raleigh County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Raleigh 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 Raleigh County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lester's 321 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 321 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Lester-wide figureread your own land →
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