Salt Rock, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Salt Rock, 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 Salt Rock 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 Salt Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Salt Rock — the short answer
Salt Rock, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Salt Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salt Rock's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Salt Rock
Each reading below is measured for Salt Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSalt Rock runs about 213 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
MeasuredSalt Rock 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 Salt Rock is in
Salt Rock sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Salt Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cabell County.
What Grows in Salt Rock
Every plant below cleared Salt Rock's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Salt Rock?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Salt Rock
Survey cells within 31 miles of Salt Rock checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 115 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Salt Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Salt Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARBAUGH GROCERY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #20223Brownfields · 2300 ft
- PAR MAR # 51Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FORMER FRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHILDER'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RONNIE ROSS 326-238Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SUTPHINS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MINING MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- NV RACINGBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- RICH OIL #7321Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MEADOWS WELDING & RADIATOR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- RIVERSIDE SERV STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salt Rock'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 Salt Rock.
Total Sites
292
within ~10 miles of Salt Rock
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Salt Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Salt Rock
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 Salt Rock
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 Salt Rock average
Your land is one point inside Salt Rock
Everything above resolves to Salt Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Salt Rock Average
Salt Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Salt Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Salt Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Salt Rock's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salt Rock's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Salt Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salt Rock, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salt Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salt Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salt Rock average
How we know this about Salt Rock
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 Salt Rock’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 Salt Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Salt Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salt Rock typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Salt Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Salt Rock typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Salt Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salt Rock sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salt Rock?
The federal record around Salt Rock is a meaningful one — 292 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (162), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Salt Rock?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Salt Rock's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salt Rock'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 Salt Rock’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Salt Rock's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,962 acres it covers and 292 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salt Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salt Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 292 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Salt Rock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Salt Rock's boundary and the 1,962 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Salt Rock's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Salt Rock 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 Salt Rock's 1,962 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cabell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cabell 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 Cabell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Salt Rock's 1,962 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Salt Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,962 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Salt Rock-wide figureread your own land →