Poca, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Poca, 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 Poca 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 Poca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Poca — the short answer
Poca, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 355 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 355 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 Poca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poca's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poca
Each reading below is measured for Poca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPoca runs about 218 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPoca 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 Poca is in
Poca sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Poca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Putnam County.
What Grows in Poca
Every plant below cleared Poca's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Poca?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Poca
Survey cells within 31 miles of Poca checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 105 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Poca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY ICE & FUEL - ROCK BRANCH EXXONBrownfields · 550 ft
- SHEETZ #517Brownfields · 550 ft
- WV0042Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EDDIE L THOMASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CLAXTON SMITH & SONS CONC CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- POCA HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WESCO CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EDDIE'S PENNZOILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CLAXTON SMITH CONCRETEBrownfields · 1900 ft
- BARAZI PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FORMER GOOD STUFF PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HEIZER CREEKSuperfund · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poca'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 Poca.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poca, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Poca. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Poca
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 Poca average
Your land is one point inside Poca
Everything above resolves to Poca as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 355 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 Poca Average
Poca Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Poca
- ●One soil character for all of Poca
- ●Frost dates read at Poca's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poca's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poca, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poca average
How we know this about Poca
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 Poca’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 Poca
When does frost risk typically end in Poca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poca typically lands around Apr 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 Apr 23.
When is the first frost in Poca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poca typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Poca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poca sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 23, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poca?
The federal record around Poca is a meaningful one — 856 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (397), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Poca?
From about Oct 7 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 Nov 6 (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 Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Poca's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poca'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 Poca’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Poca's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 355 acres it covers and 856 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Poca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 6 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 856 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poca, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poca's boundary and the 355 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Poca's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Poca 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 Poca's 355 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poca's 355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 355 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Poca-wide figureread your own land →