Rupert, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rupert, 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 Rupert 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 Rupert — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rupert — the short answer
Rupert, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 491 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 491 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 Rupert's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rupert's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rupert
Each reading below is measured for Rupert itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRupert runs about 182 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
MeasuredRupert 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 Rupert is in
Rupert sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rupert's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greenbrier County.
What Grows in Rupert
Every plant below cleared Rupert's own zone 6b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rupert?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Rupert
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rupert checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rupert
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rupert. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREENBRIER SMOKELESS COAL MINING LLCBrownfields · 650 ft
- A & A SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RUPERT OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WESTVACO CORP. RUPERT AREA OFFICEToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- HANDY PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- W L GILKESON & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WESTVACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RUPERT DCO C198Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BURNS MOTOR FREIGHTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WESTERN GREENBRIER PHARMACYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #16146Brownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rupert'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 Rupert.
Total Sites
188
within ~10 miles of Rupert
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rupert
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rupert
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rupert, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Rupert. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rupert
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 Rupert average
Your land is one point inside Rupert
Everything above resolves to Rupert as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 491 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 Rupert Average
Rupert Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rupert
- ●One soil character for all of Rupert
- ●Frost dates read at Rupert's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rupert's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rupert
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rupert, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rupert averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rupert — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rupert average
How we know this about Rupert
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 Rupert’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 Rupert
When does frost risk typically end in Rupert?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rupert typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Rupert?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rupert typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rupert?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rupert sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 7, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rupert?
The federal record around Rupert shows 188 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Rupert?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rupert's scale — its 6b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rupert'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 Rupert’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rupert's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 491 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rupert's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rupert's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 21 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rupert, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rupert's boundary and the 491 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rupert's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rupert 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 Rupert's 491 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 Rupert's 491 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rupert you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 491 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 Rupert-wide figureread your own land →
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