Panama, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Panama, 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 Panama 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 Panama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Panama — the short answer
Panama, Illinois: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 234 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 234 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 Panama's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Panama's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Panama
Each reading below is measured for Panama itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPanama runs about 223 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
MeasuredPanama 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 Panama is in
Panama sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Panama's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Panama
Every plant below cleared Panama's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Panama?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Panama
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Panama. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Coleman GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- JR's Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Fillmore Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- PROPELLEX CORPBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- Royer Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Sorento GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Sorento Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Bone Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Bond County Comm. School Dist 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- TIMBERLINE PORKCAFO · 4.4 mi
- COLEMAN LAND AND PORKCAFO · 4.5 mi
- Walshville Elevator IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Panama'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 Panama.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Panama
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Panama
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Panama, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Panama — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Panama
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 Panama average
Your land is one point inside Panama
Everything above resolves to Panama as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 234 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 Panama Average
Panama Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Panama
- ●One soil character for all of Panama
- ●Frost dates read at Panama's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Panama's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Panama
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Panama, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Panama averages can't show:
We read public map data around Panama — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Panama average
How we know this about Panama
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 Panama’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 Panama
When does frost risk typically end in Panama?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Panama typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Panama?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Panama typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Panama?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Panama sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 23, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Panama?
The federal record around Panama is a meaningful one — 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Panama?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Panama's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Panama'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 Panama’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Panama's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 234 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Panama's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Panama's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 6 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Panama, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Panama's boundary and the 234 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Panama'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 Panama's 234 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Panama's 234 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Panama you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 234 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Panama-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisPanama sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides