Prichard, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Prichard, 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 Prichard 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 Prichard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Prichard — the short answer
Prichard, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 708 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 708 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 Prichard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prichard's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prichard
Each reading below is measured for Prichard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrichard runs about 217 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
MeasuredPrichard 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 Prichard is in
Prichard sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Prichard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Prichard
Every plant below cleared Prichard's own zone 7a and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prichard?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Prichard
Survey cells within 31 miles of Prichard checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 117 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Prichard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prichard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PURFLUX GROUPBrownfields · 750 ft
- OKUNO INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PRIME SOURCE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Buchanan GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PRICHARD GO MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Big Sandy Resources Inc (864-8031)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #18327Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- Rankins Burnaugh Fuel StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HUNTINGTON ALLOYS/INCOSuperfund · 2.1 mi
- Clarks Pump N Shop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Huntington Alloys CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TN GAS PIPELINE CO LLC - STATION 114Brownfields · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prichard'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 Prichard.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Prichard
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prichard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prichard
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 Prichard
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 Prichard average
Your land is one point inside Prichard
Everything above resolves to Prichard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 708 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 Prichard Average
Prichard Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Prichard
- ●One soil character for all of Prichard
- ●Frost dates read at Prichard's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prichard's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prichard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prichard, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prichard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prichard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prichard average
How we know this about Prichard
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 Prichard’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 Prichard
When does frost risk typically end in Prichard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prichard typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Prichard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prichard typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prichard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prichard sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 21, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prichard?
The federal record around Prichard is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), 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 Prichard?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prichard's scale — its 7a band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prichard'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 Prichard’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Prichard's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 708 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prichard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prichard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 4 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prichard, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prichard's boundary and the 708 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prichard's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Prichard 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 Prichard's 708 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prichard's 708 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prichard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 708 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 Prichard-wide figureread your own land →