Du Quoin, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Du Quoin, 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 Du Quoin 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 Du Quoin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Du Quoin — the short answer
Du Quoin, Illinois: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 7a is Du Quoin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Du Quoin's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Du Quoin
Each reading below is measured for Du Quoin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDu Quoin runs about 228 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
MeasuredDu Quoin sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Du Quoin is in
Du Quoin sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Du Quoin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Perry County.
What Grows in Du Quoin
Every plant below cleared Du Quoin's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Du Quoin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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's on the federal record near Du Quoin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Du Quoin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Caseys General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Garys Marathon SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PRESTIGE TRAILERS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- GRAIN KINGBrownfields · 1800 ft
- MITCHELLS COLLISIONBrownfields · 1800 ft
- DuQuoin Moto MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Art Auto SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Clark 1608Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Amoco Ss 18752Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 1084Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- City of DuQuoinUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Du Quoin State FairgroundsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Du Quoin'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 Du Quoin.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Du Quoin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Du Quoin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Du Quoin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Du Quoin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 77 sites within ~10 miles of Du Quoin. 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 Du Quoin
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 Du Quoin average
Your land is one point inside Du Quoin
Everything above resolves to Du Quoin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Du Quoin Average
Du Quoin Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Du Quoin
- ●One soil character for all of Du Quoin
- ●Frost dates read at Du Quoin's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Du Quoin's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Du Quoin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Du Quoin, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Du Quoin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Du Quoin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Du Quoin average
How we know this about Du Quoin
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 Du Quoin’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 Du Quoin
When does frost risk typically end in Du Quoin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Du Quoin typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Du Quoin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Du Quoin typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Du Quoin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Du Quoin sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 25, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Du Quoin?
The federal record around Du Quoin is a meaningful one — 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Du Quoin?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Du Quoin's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Du Quoin'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 Du Quoin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Du Quoin's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,467 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Du Quoin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Du Quoin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 8 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Du Quoin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Du Quoin's boundary and the 4,467 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Du Quoin'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 Du Quoin's 4,467 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Perry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Perry 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 Perry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Du Quoin's 4,467 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Du Quoin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,467 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Du Quoin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisDu Quoin sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides