Hoopeston, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Hoopeston, 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 Hoopeston 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 Hoopeston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hoopeston — the short answer
Hoopeston, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Hoopeston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hoopeston's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hoopeston
Each reading below is measured for Hoopeston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoopeston runs about 201 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
MeasuredHoopeston 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 Hoopeston is in
Hoopeston sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hoopeston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vermilion County.
What Grows in Hoopeston
Every plant below cleared Hoopeston's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hoopeston?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Hoopeston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hoopeston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Zook Farm Hoopeston East 4AUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Hoopeston East Lynn SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Grant Township Road DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Fmc CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FMC CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- Casey's General Store #1775Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HOOPESTONPFAS · 2200 ft
- Mohr Inc Ser CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Donald E. BuhrmesterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SILVER BROS INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- GOSSETTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Alltel Il, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hoopeston'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 Hoopeston.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Hoopeston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hoopeston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hoopeston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hoopeston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hoopeston — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (54 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hoopeston
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 Hoopeston average
Your land is one point inside Hoopeston
Everything above resolves to Hoopeston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Hoopeston Average
Hoopeston Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hoopeston
- ●One soil character for all of Hoopeston
- ●Frost dates read at Hoopeston's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hoopeston's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hoopeston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hoopeston, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hoopeston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hoopeston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hoopeston average
How we know this about Hoopeston
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 Hoopeston’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 Hoopeston
When does frost risk typically end in Hoopeston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hoopeston typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Hoopeston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hoopeston typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hoopeston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hoopeston sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hoopeston?
The federal record around Hoopeston is a meaningful one — 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hoopeston?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hoopeston's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hoopeston'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 Hoopeston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hoopeston's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,359 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hoopeston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hoopeston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hoopeston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hoopeston's boundary and the 2,359 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hoopeston'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 Hoopeston's 2,359 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vermilion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vermilion 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 Vermilion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hoopeston's 2,359 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hoopeston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,359 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 Hoopeston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHoopeston sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides