Pana, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Pana, 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 Pana 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 Pana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pana — the short answer
Pana, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- 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
- ~216
- 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 6b is Pana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pana's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pana
Each reading below is measured for Pana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPana runs about 216 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
MeasuredPana 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 Pana is in
Pana sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Christian County.
What Grows in Pana
Every plant below cleared Pana's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pana?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Pana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOES AUTO SALVAGEToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- EASTERDAY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Pana Kerr-Mcgee StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- De-El-Bee MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BEYERS CONSTRUCTION CO INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Casey's General Store #1975Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Pana School Dist 8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BOB RIDINGS CHRYSLER DODGEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BUCKS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Rose City Industries, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GMB CARQUESTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Specification Stone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pana'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 Pana.
Total Sites
79
within ~10 miles of Pana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pana, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 51 sites within ~10 miles of Pana. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Pana
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 Pana average
Your land is one point inside Pana
Everything above resolves to Pana 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 Pana Average
Pana Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pana
- ●One soil character for all of Pana
- ●Frost dates read at Pana's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pana's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pana, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pana average
How we know this about Pana
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 Pana’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 Pana
When does frost risk typically end in Pana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pana typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Pana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pana 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 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pana sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 20, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pana?
The federal record around Pana is a meaningful one — 79 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Pana?
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 Pana's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pana'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 Pana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pana's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,468 acres it covers and 79 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 3 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 79 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pana, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pana's boundary and the 2,468 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pana'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 Pana's 2,468 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Christian County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Christian 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 Christian County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pana's 2,468 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,468 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Pana-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisPana sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides