Macoupin County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Macoupin County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Macoupin County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Macoupin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Macoupin County — the short answer
Macoupin County, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 552K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 552K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Macoupin County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Macoupin County's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Macoupin County
Across a year, Macoupin County accumulates about 3,577 growing degree days above 50°F, about 194 more than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 62 of Illinois’s 102 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Macoupin County
Across Macoupin County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Herrick, Hickory, and Virden are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
32%
Hydric soils
21%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Macoupin County
The USDA soil survey maps 49% of Macoupin County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 49% drains differently: 21% well drained, 19% poorly drained.
Herrick is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Hickory (15%) and Virden (13%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Macoupin County
Each reading below is measured for Macoupin County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Macoupin County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Macoupin County runs about pH 6.2–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMacoupin County runs about 221 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
MeasuredMacoupin County 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 Macoupin County is in
Macoupin County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Interior River Valleys and Hills (92%) and Central Corn Belt Plains (8%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Macoupin County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Macoupin County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 221-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile.
Is it too late to plant in Macoupin County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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.
What gets applied to farmland in Macoupin County
USGS estimates 296,229 lb of Glyphosate on Macoupin County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (145,861 lb) and Atrazine (136,995 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Macoupin County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Macoupin County — 279 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Macoupin County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Macoupin County
Closest first, across Macoupin County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 334Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- SLOAN IMPLEMENT COBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CARLINVILLE HSBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Valley Stee Products Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WEST SIDE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- Fisher MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SOUTHERN PACIFIC TRANSP COBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- J. F. Boente SonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WILLS MILLING & HARDWOODS INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- SCHELDT BROTHERS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- Rathgeb Bros IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Pats StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Macoupin County'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 Macoupin County.
Total Sites
279
across Macoupin County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Macoupin County
Severity Distribution
across Macoupin County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Macoupin County, two things run higher than the national average across Macoupin County — CAFO (9 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Macoupin County
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 Macoupin County average
Your land is one point inside Macoupin County
Everything above resolves to Macoupin County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 552K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Macoupin County Average
Macoupin County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Macoupin County
- ●One soil character for all of Macoupin County
- ●Frost dates read at Macoupin County's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Macoupin County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Macoupin County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Macoupin County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Macoupin County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Macoupin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Macoupin County average
How we know this about Macoupin County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Macoupin County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Macoupin County
When does frost risk typically end in Macoupin County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Macoupin County typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Macoupin County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Macoupin County sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Macoupin County?
The federal record around Macoupin County is a meaningful one — 279 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (182), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Macoupin County's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Macoupin County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Illinois's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Macoupin County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Macoupin County's own scale — its own ~221-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 279 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Macoupin County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Macoupin County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Macoupin CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 279 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Macoupin County's boundary and the 552,316 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Macoupin County spans, Interior River Valleys and Hills the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Macoupin County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Macoupin County — the ~221 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Macoupin County's 552,316 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 279 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Macoupin Countyread your own land →