Herscher, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Herscher, 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 Herscher 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 Herscher — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Herscher — the short answer
Herscher, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Herscher's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Herscher's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Herscher
Each reading below is measured for Herscher itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHerscher runs about 205 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
MeasuredHerscher 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 Herscher is in
Herscher sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Herscher's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kankakee County.
What Grows in Herscher
Every plant below cleared Herscher's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Herscher?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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's on the federal record near Herscher
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Herscher. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Robert W. Lamert, Jr.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Herscher Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Tobey Const & Cartage IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Storage ShedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Herscher PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Scanlon MikeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Herscher RadioUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Natural Gas Pipeline Co #201Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Pilot TownshipUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- R Eich & Sons IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Emling HaroldUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- EMILINGS COMPONENTS AND MILLWORKBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Herscher'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 Herscher.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Herscher
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Herscher
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Herscher
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 Herscher
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 Herscher average
Your land is one point inside Herscher
Everything above resolves to Herscher as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 town 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 Herscher Average
Herscher Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Herscher
- ●One soil character for all of Herscher
- ●Frost dates read at Herscher's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Herscher's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Herscher
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Herscher, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Herscher averages can't show:
We read public map data around Herscher — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Herscher average
How we know this about Herscher
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Herscher’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Herscher
When does frost risk typically end in Herscher?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Herscher typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Herscher?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Herscher typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Herscher?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Herscher sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 18, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Herscher?
The federal record around Herscher shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Herscher?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Herscher's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Herscher'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 Herscher’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Herscher's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,160 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Herscher's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Herscher's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 1 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Herscher, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Herscher's boundary and the 1,160 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Herscher's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Herscher's 1,160 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kankakee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kankakee 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 Kankakee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Herscher's 1,160 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Herscher you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,160 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Herscher-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHerscher sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides