Pearl, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pearl, 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 Pearl 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 Pearl — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pearl — the short answer
Pearl, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 963 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 963 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 Pearl's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pearl's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pearl
Each reading below is measured for Pearl itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPearl runs about 221 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
MeasuredPearl 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 Pearl is in
Pearl sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pearl's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Pearl
Every plant below cleared Pearl's own zone 6a and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pearl?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Pearl
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pearl. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Quarrylacey & BauerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Pearl Fuel Mart, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PRAIRIE POWER INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- CALHOUN COUNTY RWDPFAS · 2.0 mi
- Orton Quarry IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Hillview Quarry #1Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Il River Valley ProductsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- 450 E and 2600 NNitrate · 5.1 mi
- Callender Construction Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- MiltonUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Denisons Standard Service (West Side)Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Logan Agri Service, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pearl'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 Pearl.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of Pearl
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pearl
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pearl
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Pearl
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 Pearl average
Your land is one point inside Pearl
Everything above resolves to Pearl as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 963 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 Pearl Average
Pearl Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pearl
- ●One soil character for all of Pearl
- ●Frost dates read at Pearl's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pearl's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pearl
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pearl, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pearl averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pearl — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pearl average
How we know this about Pearl
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 Pearl’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 Pearl
When does frost risk typically end in Pearl?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pearl typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Pearl?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pearl typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pearl?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pearl sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 22, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pearl?
The federal record around Pearl shows 17 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (13), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pearl?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pearl's scale — its 6a band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pearl'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 Pearl’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pearl's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 963 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pearl's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pearl's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 5 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pearl, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pearl's boundary and the 963 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pearl'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 Pearl's 963 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pearl's 963 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pearl you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 963 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pearl-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisPearl sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides