Stark County, in Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, 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
Stark County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Stark 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 Stark County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stark County — the short answer
Stark County, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 184K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 184K 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 5b is Stark County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stark County's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Stark County
Across a year, Stark County accumulates about 2,970 growing degree days above 50°F, about 413 fewer than the middle Illinois county — ahead of 16 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 Stark County
Across Stark County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Osco, Ipava, and Rozetta are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
57%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Stark County
The USDA soil survey maps 50% of Stark County as well drained — but another 50% drains differently: 33% somewhat poorly drained, 10% moderately well drained.
Osco is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Ipava (13%) and Rozetta (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 Stark County
Each reading below is measured for Stark 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 Stark 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 Stark County runs about pH 6.0–6.7, 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
MeasuredStark County runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredStark County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Stark County is in
Stark County sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Stark County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Stark County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 196-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 Stark County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Stark County
- monarch butterfly16 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Stark County
USGS estimates 176,490 lb of Glyphosate on Stark County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (91,052 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (78,528 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 Stark County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Stark County — 51 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Stark 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 Stark County
Closest first, across Stark County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FMC CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- FMC CORPBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- WYOMING CUSTOMBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Harry Mccluen SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- TRANSTECHNOLOGYToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- Grandview Ser CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Ruth Oil Express MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ILDOT ST OFBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Downtown SunocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Casey's General Store #1501Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ROCK ISLAND TRAIL STATE PARKBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- Matson FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stark 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 Stark County.
Total Sites
51
across Stark County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Stark County
Severity Distribution
across Stark County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Stark 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 Stark County average
Your land is one point inside Stark County
Everything above resolves to Stark County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 184K 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 Stark County Average
Stark County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Stark County
- ●One soil character for all of Stark County
- ●Frost dates read at Stark County's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stark County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Stark County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stark County, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stark County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stark County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stark County average
How we know this about Stark 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 Stark County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Stark County
When does frost risk typically end in Stark County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stark County typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
How long is the growing season in Stark County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stark County sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 10, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stark County?
The federal record around Stark County shows 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.2 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 Stark County's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stark 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 Stark County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Stark County's own scale — its own ~196-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 51 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stark County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stark County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Stark CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 51 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Stark County's boundary and the 184,387 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stark County sitting wholly inside the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Stark County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Stark 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 Stark County — the ~196 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 Stark County's 184,387 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 51 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 Stark Countyread your own land →