Rand, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rand, 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 Rand 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 Rand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rand — the short answer
Rand, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 295 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 295 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 Rand's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rand's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rand
Each reading below is measured for Rand itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRand runs about 219 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
MeasuredRand 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 Rand is in
Rand sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rand's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kanawha County.
What Grows in Rand
Every plant below cleared Rand's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rand?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 6 — 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 Rand
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rand checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 97 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rand
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rand. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SEABOLT SERVICECENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 35908Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EARTHGRAINS BAKING COMPANIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SOLO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WALKER WAREHOUSE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BROGAN AND SON AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BUZZ PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DAVE'S TIRE & AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #15292Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- CARVER CAREER TECHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HOUFF TRANSFER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BIG LOTS STORES - VARIETY WHOLESALERS #3098Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rand'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 Rand.
Total Sites
894
within ~10 miles of Rand
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rand
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rand
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 Rand
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 Rand average
Your land is one point inside Rand
Everything above resolves to Rand as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 295 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 Rand Average
Rand Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rand
- ●One soil character for all of Rand
- ●Frost dates read at Rand's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rand's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rand
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rand, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rand averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rand average
How we know this about Rand
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 Rand’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 Rand
When does frost risk typically end in Rand?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rand 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 Rand?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rand 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 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rand?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rand sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 23, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rand?
The federal record around Rand is a meaningful one — 894 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (540), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Rand?
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 Rand's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rand'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 Rand’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rand's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 295 acres it covers and 894 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rand's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rand's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 6 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 894 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rand, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rand's boundary and the 295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rand's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rand 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 Rand's 295 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kanawha County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kanawha 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 Kanawha County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rand's 295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rand you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 295 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Rand-wide figureread your own land →