Bethalto, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Bethalto, 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 Bethalto 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 Bethalto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethalto — the short answer
Bethalto, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- 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
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Bethalto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethalto's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethalto
Each reading below is measured for Bethalto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBethalto runs about 231 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
MeasuredBethalto 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 Bethalto is in
Bethalto sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bethalto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Bethalto
Every plant below cleared Bethalto's own zone 6b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethalto?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (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 Bethalto
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bethalto checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 220 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bethalto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethalto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Short Stop Convenience Ctr IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Green's CitgoUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Reeds AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- YOUR CLOTHESLINEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Buck's 606Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BETHALTO AMOCOBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Han-Dee MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- R & M Tire SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Bethalto Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Bethalo Comm Cusd 8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Storage FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethalto'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 Bethalto.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethalto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethalto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethalto, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Bethalto. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Bethalto
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 Bethalto average
Your land is one point inside Bethalto
Everything above resolves to Bethalto as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Bethalto Average
Bethalto Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bethalto
- ●One soil character for all of Bethalto
- ●Frost dates read at Bethalto's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethalto's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethalto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethalto, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethalto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethalto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethalto average
How we know this about Bethalto
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 Bethalto’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 Bethalto
When does frost risk typically end in Bethalto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethalto typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Bethalto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethalto 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 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethalto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethalto sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 28, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethalto?
The federal record around Bethalto is a meaningful one — 635 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (357), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bethalto?
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 Bethalto's scale — its 6b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethalto'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 Bethalto’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bethalto's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,858 acres it covers and 635 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethalto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bethalto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 11 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 635 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethalto, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethalto's boundary and the 4,858 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bethalto's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bethalto 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 Bethalto's 4,858 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethalto's 4,858 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethalto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,858 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 Bethalto-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBethalto sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides