Wheeling, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Wheeling, 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 Wheeling 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 Wheeling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wheeling — the short answer
Wheeling, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Wheeling's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wheeling's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wheeling
Each reading below is measured for Wheeling itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWheeling runs about 224 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
MeasuredWheeling 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 Wheeling is in
Wheeling sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wheeling's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ohio County.
What Grows in Wheeling
Every plant below cleared Wheeling's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wheeling?
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 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 11 — 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 Wheeling
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Wheeling, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wheeling
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wheeling. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LINSLY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- KROGER # 11562Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HAMPTON INNBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TSP 204Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6278Brownfields · 1100 ft
- EXXON 2-2485 (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NTB STORE #7607Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8557Brownfields · 1300 ft
- KROGER STORE #562Brownfields · 1300 ft
- SHEETZ #362Brownfields · 1400 ft
- GULF STATION/MC DONALD'S/NO FORMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHEETZ INC #362Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wheeling'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 Wheeling.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wheeling
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wheeling
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wheeling, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wheeling — PFAS (7 sites) and Superfund (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Wheeling
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 Wheeling average
Your land is one point inside Wheeling
Everything above resolves to Wheeling as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 city 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 Wheeling Average
Wheeling Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wheeling
- ●One soil character for all of Wheeling
- ●Frost dates read at Wheeling's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wheeling's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wheeling
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wheeling, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wheeling averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wheeling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wheeling average
How we know this about Wheeling
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Wheeling’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Wheeling
When does frost risk typically end in Wheeling?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wheeling 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 Wheeling?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wheeling typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wheeling?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wheeling sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 28, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wheeling?
The federal record around Wheeling is a meaningful one — 627 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (343), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wheeling?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wheeling's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wheeling'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 Wheeling’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wheeling's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,701 acres it covers and 627 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wheeling's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wheeling's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 11 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 627 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wheeling, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wheeling's boundary and the 8,701 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wheeling's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wheelinglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wheeling's 8,701 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ohio County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ohio 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 Ohio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wheeling's 8,701 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wheeling you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,701 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Wheeling-wide figureread your own land →
More in West Virginia
Growing region
Nearby growing guides