Sutton, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sutton, 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 Sutton 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 Sutton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sutton — the short answer
Sutton, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 497 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 497 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 Sutton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sutton's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sutton
Each reading below is measured for Sutton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSutton runs about 208 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
MeasuredSutton 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 Sutton is in
Sutton sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sutton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Braxton County.
What Grows in Sutton
Every plant below cleared Sutton's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sutton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Sutton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sutton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 62 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sutton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sutton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EVANS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- EVANS 846Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RITE AID STORE PLANNINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- IMC CORP OF AMERICA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GO-MART STORE # 018Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #10425Brownfields · 1500 ft
- ROGER NETTLES PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BRAXTON OIL & SUPPLY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FORMER CHURCH OF GODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SUTTON DETACHMENT STATE POLICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GASSAWAY MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FRAME'S STORE/NO FORMS/AWLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sutton'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 Sutton.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of Sutton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sutton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sutton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sutton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 105 sites within ~10 miles of Sutton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sutton
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 Sutton average
Your land is one point inside Sutton
Everything above resolves to Sutton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 497 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 Sutton Average
Sutton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sutton
- ●One soil character for all of Sutton
- ●Frost dates read at Sutton's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sutton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sutton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sutton, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sutton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sutton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sutton average
How we know this about Sutton
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 Sutton’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 Sutton
When does frost risk typically end in Sutton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sutton typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Sutton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sutton 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sutton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sutton sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sutton?
The federal record around Sutton shows 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sutton?
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 Sutton's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sutton'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 Sutton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sutton's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 497 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sutton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sutton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sutton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sutton's boundary and the 497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sutton's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sutton 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 Sutton's 497 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Braxton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Braxton 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 Braxton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sutton's 497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sutton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 497 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 Sutton-wide figureread your own land →
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