Cuba, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cuba, 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 Cuba 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 Cuba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cuba — the short answer
Cuba, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 348 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 348 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 Cuba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cuba's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cuba
Each reading below is measured for Cuba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCuba runs about 203 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
MeasuredCuba 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 Cuba is in
Cuba sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cuba's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Cuba
Every plant below cleared Cuba's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cuba?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Cuba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cuba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Windriver IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Casey's General Store #1615Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BURGUS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 450 ft
- CUBA MIDDLE-HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 600 ft
- Cuba Jr Sr Hs Maint ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Fulton County Cusd #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WARECO 976Brownfields · 1500 ft
- R2 Retail Fuels, Inc. d/b/a Cuba Fast StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 12400Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Chets AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- AMOCO OIL CO SS 16454Brownfields · 2300 ft
- ESKRIDGE FARMSCAFO · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cuba'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 Cuba.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Cuba
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cuba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cuba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cuba, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 75 sites within ~10 miles of Cuba. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Cuba
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 Cuba average
Your land is one point inside Cuba
Everything above resolves to Cuba as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 348 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 city 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 Cuba Average
Cuba Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cuba
- ●One soil character for all of Cuba
- ●Frost dates read at Cuba's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cuba's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cuba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cuba, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cuba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cuba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cuba average
How we know this about Cuba
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cuba’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Cuba
When does frost risk typically end in Cuba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cuba typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Cuba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cuba typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cuba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cuba sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 14, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cuba?
The federal record around Cuba is a meaningful one — 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), 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 Cuba?
From about Sep 28 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 Oct 28 (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 Oct 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cuba's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cuba'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 Cuba’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cuba's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 348 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cuba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cuba's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 28 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cuba, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cuba's boundary and the 348 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cuba's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cuba's 348 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cuba's 348 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cuba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 348 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 Cuba-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisCuba sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides