Rainelle, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Rainelle, 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 Rainelle 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 Rainelle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rainelle — the short answer
Rainelle, West Virginia: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 712 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 712 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 Rainelle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rainelle's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rainelle
Each reading below is measured for Rainelle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRainelle runs about 185 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
MeasuredRainelle 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 Rainelle is in
Rainelle sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rainelle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenbrier County.
What Grows in Rainelle
Every plant below cleared Rainelle's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rainelle?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Rainelle
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rainelle checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 60 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rainelle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rainelle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GO MART STORE #077Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WALGREENS #18404Brownfields · 550 ft
- LITTLE GENERAL STORE # 2000Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FORMER J & J MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- RITE AID CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DODSON-HAGER FORD SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- STONERISE RAINELLEBrownfields · 800 ft
- TOWN OF RAINELLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #924Brownfields · 800 ft
- PIONEER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FORMER EXXON R/S 2-9890Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- R H BOWMAN DISTRIBUTORS NF/BAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rainelle'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 Rainelle.
Total Sites
220
within ~10 miles of Rainelle
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rainelle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rainelle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rainelle, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 88 sites within ~10 miles of Rainelle. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Rainelle
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 Rainelle average
Your land is one point inside Rainelle
Everything above resolves to Rainelle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 712 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 Rainelle Average
Rainelle Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rainelle
- ●One soil character for all of Rainelle
- ●Frost dates read at Rainelle's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rainelle's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rainelle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rainelle, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rainelle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rainelle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rainelle average
How we know this about Rainelle
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 Rainelle’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 Rainelle
When does frost risk typically end in Rainelle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rainelle typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Rainelle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rainelle typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rainelle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rainelle sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 8, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rainelle?
The federal record around Rainelle is a meaningful one — 220 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), 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 Rainelle?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rainelle's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rainelle'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 Rainelle’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rainelle's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 712 acres it covers and 220 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rainelle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rainelle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 22 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 220 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rainelle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rainelle's boundary and the 712 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rainelle's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rainelle 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 Rainelle's 712 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenbrier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenbrier 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 Greenbrier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rainelle's 712 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rainelle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 712 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 Rainelle-wide figureread your own land →
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