West Union, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Union, 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 West Union 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 West Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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West Union — the short answer
West Union, West Virginia: USDA zone 6b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 230 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 230 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 West Union's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Union's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Union
Each reading below is measured for West Union itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Union runs about 191 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
MeasuredWest Union 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 West Union is in
West Union sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Union's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doddridge County.
What Grows in West Union
Every plant below cleared West Union's own zone 6b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Union?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 West Union
Survey cells within 31 miles of West Union checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Union
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Union. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KELLY'S SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WEST UNION VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- KELLYS SUNOCO SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 300 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 35963Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DODDRIDGE CO HQ 04091Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MAXWELL COMPRESSOR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HUSK'S QUAKER STATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WEST UNION CS # 53Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MCGILLIS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DODDRIDGE CO EMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #9972Brownfields · 650 ft
- MICHELS PHARMACY INCBrownfields · 800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Union'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 West Union.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of West Union
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Union
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Union
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in West Union
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 West Union average
Your land is one point inside West Union
Everything above resolves to West Union as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 230 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 West Union Average
West Union Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across West Union
- ●One soil character for all of West Union
- ●Frost dates read at West Union's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Union's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Union
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Union, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Union averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Union average
How we know this about West Union
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 West Union’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 West Union
When does frost risk typically end in West Union?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Union typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in West Union?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Union typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Union?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Union sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 12, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Union?
The federal record around West Union shows 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 West Union?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Union's scale — its 6b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Union'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 West Union’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Union's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 230 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Union's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Union's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 26 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Union, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Union's boundary and the 230 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Union's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around West Union 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 West Union's 230 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Doddridge County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Doddridge 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 Doddridge County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Union's 230 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Union you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 230 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 West Union-wide figureread your own land →
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