Whitesville, West Virginia, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Whitesville, 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 Whitesville 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 Whitesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Whitesville — the short answer
Whitesville, West Virginia: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 143 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 143 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 Whitesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Whitesville's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Whitesville
Each reading below is measured for Whitesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWhitesville runs about 216 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
MeasuredWhitesville 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 Whitesville is in
Whitesville sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Whitesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Whitesville
Every plant below cleared Whitesville's own zone 7a and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's West Virginia profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Whitesville?
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 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 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Whitesville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Whitesville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 76 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Whitesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Whitesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #937Brownfields · 650 ft
- TOWN OF WHITESVILLE-WATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- M & M QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- EUNICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- B & M OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CHESS PROCESSINGToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- WV0039Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROUTE 3 COMPANY STORE & DINERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- M & J OPERATIONS C\O CROSSAMERICA - WV0039Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOVE 2 HOTROD INC DBA MASSEY'S PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HANNAHS PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Ral-0131Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Whitesville'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 Whitesville.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Whitesville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Whitesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Whitesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Whitesville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Whitesville. 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 Whitesville
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 Whitesville average
Your land is one point inside Whitesville
Everything above resolves to Whitesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 143 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 Whitesville Average
Whitesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Whitesville
- ●One soil character for all of Whitesville
- ●Frost dates read at Whitesville's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Whitesville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Whitesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Whitesville, West Virginia — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Whitesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Whitesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Whitesville average
How we know this about Whitesville
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 Whitesville’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 Whitesville
When does frost risk typically end in Whitesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Whitesville 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 Whitesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Whitesville typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Whitesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Whitesville sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 22, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Whitesville?
The federal record around Whitesville shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), 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 Whitesville?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Whitesville's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Whitesville'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 Whitesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Whitesville's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 143 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Whitesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Whitesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 5 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Whitesville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Whitesville's boundary and the 143 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Whitesville's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Whitesville 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 Whitesville's 143 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone 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 Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Whitesville's 143 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Whitesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 143 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 Whitesville-wide figureread your own land →
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