Pike County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Pike County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pike 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 Pike County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pike County — the short answer
Pike County, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 532K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 532K 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 6a is Pike County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pike County's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Pike County
Across a year, Pike County accumulates about 3,359 growing degree days above 50°F, about 24 fewer than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 46 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 Pike County
Across Pike County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Menfro, Winfield, and Wakeland are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
15%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pike County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Pike County as well drained — but another 56% drains differently: 22% moderately well drained, 19% somewhat poorly drained.
Menfro is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Winfield (16%) and Wakeland (6%).
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 Pike County
Each reading below is measured for Pike 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 Pike County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Pike County runs about pH 6.2–6.6, 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
MeasuredPike County runs about 211 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
MeasuredPike County 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 Pike County is in
Pike County sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Pike County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pike County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 211-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 Pike County?
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 Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in Pike County
USGS estimates 239,635 lb of Glyphosate on Pike County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (120,104 lb) and Atrazine (115,745 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 Pike County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pike County — 163 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Pike County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Pike County
Closest first, across Pike County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRANKS 4X4Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- Lucky One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Phillips 66 Co #040243Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- DYNO NOBEL INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- IDOC PITTSFIELD WORK CAMPBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Beard ImplementUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Dyno TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- GREENE COUNTY SANITATION SERVICEBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- W W SanitationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 1120Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- THE WRIGHT PLACE AUTOBODY INCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- Schuster GeorgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pike 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 Pike County.
Total Sites
163
across Pike County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Pike County
Severity Distribution
across Pike County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pike County, two things run higher than the national average across Pike County — CAFO (5 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Pike 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 Pike County average
Your land is one point inside Pike County
Everything above resolves to Pike County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 532K 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 Pike County Average
Pike County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pike County
- ●One soil character for all of Pike County
- ●Frost dates read at Pike County's scale: Mar 31 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pike County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pike County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pike County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pike County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pike County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pike County average
How we know this about Pike 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 Pike County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pike County
When does frost risk typically end in Pike County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pike County typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Pike County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pike County sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 14, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pike County?
The federal record around Pike County shows 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (117), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Pike County's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pike 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 Pike County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Pike County's own scale — its own ~211-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 163 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pike County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pike County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pike CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 163 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pike County's boundary and the 532,065 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pike County sitting wholly inside the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pike 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 Pike County — the ~211 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 Pike County's 532,065 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 163 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 Pike Countyread your own land →