Pentress, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pentress, 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 Pentress 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 Pentress — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pentress — the short answer
Pentress, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 388 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 388 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 Pentress's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pentress's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pentress
Each reading below is measured for Pentress itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPentress 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
MeasuredPentress 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 Pentress is in
Pentress sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pentress's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monongalia County.
What Grows in Pentress
Every plant below cleared Pentress's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pentress?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Pentress
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Pentress, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pentress
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pentress. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHISLER BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Mng-0513Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Mng-0521Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- WVDOH - PENTRESS SUB-STATIONBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CHISLER BROTHERS CONTRACTING LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PENTRESS SUB STA 04312Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Mng-0507Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Mng-0453Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- Mng-0448Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- CLAY-BATTELLE PHARMACYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Mng-0449Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- Mng-0546Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pentress'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 Pentress.
Total Sites
177
within ~10 miles of Pentress
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pentress
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pentress
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pentress, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pentress — Nitrate (68 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pentress
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 Pentress average
Your land is one point inside Pentress
Everything above resolves to Pentress as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 388 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 Pentress Average
Pentress Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pentress
- ●One soil character for all of Pentress
- ●Frost dates read at Pentress's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pentress's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pentress
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pentress, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pentress averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pentress — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pentress average
How we know this about Pentress
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 Pentress’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 Pentress
When does frost risk typically end in Pentress?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pentress typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Pentress?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pentress typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pentress?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pentress sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 14, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pentress?
The federal record around Pentress shows 177 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Pentress?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pentress's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pentress'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 Pentress’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pentress's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 388 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pentress's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pentress's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 28 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pentress, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pentress's boundary and the 388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pentress's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pentresslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pentress's 388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monongalia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monongalia 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 Monongalia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pentress's 388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pentress you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Pentress-wide figureread your own land →
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