Paden City, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Even in Paden City, 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 Paden City 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 Paden City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paden City — the short answer
Paden City, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 541 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 541 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 Paden City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paden City's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paden City
Each reading below is measured for Paden City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaden City 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
MeasuredPaden City 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 Paden City is in
Paden City sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paden City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wetzel County.
What Grows in Paden City
Every plant below cleared Paden City'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 Paden City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Paden City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paden City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paden City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paden City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- W H OR G M FERREBEE (*SJ/CAP)Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #4996Brownfields · 500 ft
- CITY MAINTAINANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PADEN PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JOHN KLINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WILCOX & SONS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 950 ft
- BFS FOODS #23Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FORMER CHEVRON #205942Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- AUTO RELATED INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TIRE CITY MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PADEN CITY PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CORNING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paden City'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 Paden City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paden City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paden City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paden City, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Paden City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Paden City
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 Paden City average
Your land is one point inside Paden City
Everything above resolves to Paden City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 541 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 Paden City Average
Paden City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Paden City
- ●One soil character for all of Paden City
- ●Frost dates read at Paden City's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paden City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paden City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paden City, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paden City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paden City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paden City average
How we know this about Paden City
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 Paden City’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 Paden City
When does frost risk typically end in Paden City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paden City typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Paden City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paden City typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paden City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paden City sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 11, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paden City?
The federal record around Paden City is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Paden City?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paden City's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paden City'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 Paden City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paden City's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 541 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paden City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paden City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 25 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paden City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paden City's boundary and the 541 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 Paden City's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paden City 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 Paden City's 541 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wetzel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wetzel 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 Wetzel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paden City's 541 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paden City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 541 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Paden City-wide figureread your own land →
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