Marlinton, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marlinton, 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 Marlinton 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 Marlinton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marlinton — the short answer
Marlinton, West Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6a is Marlinton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marlinton's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marlinton
Each reading below is measured for Marlinton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarlinton runs about 169 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
MeasuredMarlinton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Marlinton is in
Marlinton sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marlinton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pocahontas County.
What Grows in Marlinton
Every plant below cleared Marlinton's own zone 6a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marlinton?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Marlinton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Marlinton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marlinton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marlinton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HANOVER SHOE CO MARLINTON PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- UP TOWN PENNZOIL / FORMER M & M MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ONE STOP MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WATOGA STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HOWARD BROWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MARLINTON PENNZOILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MITCHELL CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BOB'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MITCHELL CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- HUNTER HINER 370Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MONONGAHELA POWER CO - MARLINTON SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MARLINTON ELECTRIC COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marlinton'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 Marlinton.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Marlinton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marlinton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marlinton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marlinton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Marlinton. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Marlinton
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 Marlinton average
Your land is one point inside Marlinton
Everything above resolves to Marlinton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Marlinton Average
Marlinton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Marlinton
- ●One soil character for all of Marlinton
- ●Frost dates read at Marlinton's scale: May 2 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marlinton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marlinton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marlinton, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marlinton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marlinton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marlinton average
How we know this about Marlinton
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 Marlinton’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 Marlinton
When does frost risk typically end in Marlinton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marlinton typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Marlinton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marlinton typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marlinton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marlinton sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 4, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marlinton?
The federal record around Marlinton shows 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Marlinton?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marlinton's scale — its 6a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marlinton'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 Marlinton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marlinton's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,504 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marlinton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marlinton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 18 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marlinton, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marlinton's boundary and the 1,504 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marlinton's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Marlinton 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 Marlinton's 1,504 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pocahontas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pocahontas 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 Pocahontas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marlinton's 1,504 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marlinton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,504 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Marlinton-wide figureread your own land →