Brocton, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Brocton, 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 Brocton 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 Brocton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brocton — the short answer
Brocton, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 366 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 366 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 6a is Brocton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brocton's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brocton
Each reading below is measured for Brocton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrocton runs about 213 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
MeasuredBrocton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Brocton is in
Brocton sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brocton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Edgar County.
What Grows in Brocton
Every plant below cleared Brocton's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brocton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 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 Brocton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Brocton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 109 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brocton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brocton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Brocton FsUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Old First Miss IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ILLINI FS INCBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- Keys MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- PEPL NEWMAN M&RBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- BRADSHAW NEWMAN FACILITYCAFO · 6.1 mi
- Former D&S Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Hoffman Seeds IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Marrackech Imports, Inc. d/b/a C & C's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- Lester MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- HYDROMET ENVIRONMENTAL RECOVERY LTDBrownfields · 6.4 mi
- HYDROMET ENVIRONMENTAL RECOVERY LTDToxics Release Inventory · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brocton'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 Brocton.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Brocton
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brocton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brocton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brocton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Brocton. 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 Brocton
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 Brocton average
Your land is one point inside Brocton
Everything above resolves to Brocton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 366 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 Brocton Average
Brocton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Brocton
- ●One soil character for all of Brocton
- ●Frost dates read at Brocton's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brocton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brocton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brocton, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brocton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brocton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brocton average
How we know this about Brocton
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 Brocton’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 Brocton
When does frost risk typically end in Brocton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brocton 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 Brocton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brocton 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 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brocton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brocton sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brocton?
The federal record around Brocton is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Brocton?
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 Brocton's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brocton'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 Brocton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Brocton's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 366 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brocton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brocton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brocton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brocton's boundary and the 366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brocton's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Brocton 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 Brocton's 366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Edgar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Edgar 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 Edgar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brocton's 366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brocton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 366 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 Brocton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisBrocton sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.