Pontoosuc, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Pontoosuc, 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 Pontoosuc 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 Pontoosuc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pontoosuc — the short answer
Pontoosuc, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 900 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 900 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 Pontoosuc's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pontoosuc's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pontoosuc
Each reading below is measured for Pontoosuc itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPontoosuc runs about 219 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
MeasuredPontoosuc 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 Pontoosuc is in
Pontoosuc sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pontoosuc's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hancock County.
What Grows in Pontoosuc
Every plant below cleared Pontoosuc's own zone 6a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pontoosuc?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 5 — 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 Pontoosuc
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pontoosuc. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- At&Sf Railroad YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Casey's General Store #1637Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FIRST MISSISSIPPI CORP FERTILIZER PLANTSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- Circle K #1248Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Dallas City QuarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WARECO 120Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- Pioneer Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Dallas City City OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Anguish & Wolfenbarger CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- USPS DALLAS CITY POST OFFICEBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Gracey Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pontoosuc'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 Pontoosuc.
Total Sites
172
within ~10 miles of Pontoosuc
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pontoosuc
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pontoosuc
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pontoosuc, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pontoosuc — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Pontoosuc
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 Pontoosuc average
Your land is one point inside Pontoosuc
Everything above resolves to Pontoosuc as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 900 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 Pontoosuc Average
Pontoosuc Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pontoosuc
- ●One soil character for all of Pontoosuc
- ●Frost dates read at Pontoosuc's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pontoosuc's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pontoosuc
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pontoosuc, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pontoosuc averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pontoosuc — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pontoosuc average
How we know this about Pontoosuc
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 Pontoosuc’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 Pontoosuc
When does frost risk typically end in Pontoosuc?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pontoosuc 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 Pontoosuc?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pontoosuc 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 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pontoosuc?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pontoosuc sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 22, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pontoosuc?
The federal record around Pontoosuc is a meaningful one — 172 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pontoosuc?
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 Pontoosuc's scale — its 6a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pontoosuc'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 Pontoosuc’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pontoosuc's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 900 acres it covers and 172 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pontoosuc's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pontoosuc's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 5 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 172 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pontoosuc, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pontoosuc's boundary and the 900 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pontoosuc'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 Pontoosuc's 900 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hancock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hancock 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 Hancock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pontoosuc's 900 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pontoosuc you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 900 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Pontoosuc-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisPontoosuc sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides