Hutsonville, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hutsonville, 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 Hutsonville 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 Hutsonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hutsonville — the short answer
Hutsonville, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 398 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 398 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 6b is Hutsonville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hutsonville's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hutsonville
Each reading below is measured for Hutsonville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHutsonville runs about 217 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
MeasuredHutsonville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Hutsonville is in
Hutsonville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hutsonville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Hutsonville
Every plant below cleared Hutsonville's own zone 6b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hutsonville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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.
Documented around Hutsonville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hutsonville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 131 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hutsonville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hutsonville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hutsonville FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Napier Rondell DUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Hutsonville Cusd #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Custom Farm SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Crawford Co Sf & WaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Boyll & Sons GrainUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Dix GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Il Dept Of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Hutsonville Power StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Crawford Food Ser IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AMEREN - HUTSONVILLE POWER STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- Bunker Hill Supply Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hutsonville'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 Hutsonville.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Hutsonville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hutsonville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hutsonville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hutsonville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hutsonville — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (95 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hutsonville
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 Hutsonville average
Your land is one point inside Hutsonville
Everything above resolves to Hutsonville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 398 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 Hutsonville Average
Hutsonville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hutsonville
- ●One soil character for all of Hutsonville
- ●Frost dates read at Hutsonville's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hutsonville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hutsonville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hutsonville, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hutsonville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hutsonville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hutsonville average
How we know this about Hutsonville
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 Hutsonville’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 Hutsonville
When does frost risk typically end in Hutsonville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hutsonville typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Hutsonville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hutsonville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hutsonville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hutsonville sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 20, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hutsonville?
The federal record around Hutsonville is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), 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 Hutsonville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hutsonville's scale — its 6b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hutsonville'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 Hutsonville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hutsonville's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 398 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hutsonville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hutsonville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 3 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hutsonville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hutsonville's boundary and the 398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hutsonville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hutsonville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hutsonville's 398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hutsonville's 398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hutsonville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 398 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 Hutsonville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisHutsonville sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides