Streator, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Streator, 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 Streator 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 Streator — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Streator — the short answer
Streator, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 5b is Streator's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Streator's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Streator
Each reading below is measured for Streator itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStreator runs about 206 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
MeasuredStreator sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Streator is in
Streator sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Streator's own centroid rather than borrowed from LaSalle County.
What Grows in Streator
Every plant below cleared Streator's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Streator?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Streator
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Streator. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Flink CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- TELEWELDBrownfields · 750 ft
- TELEWELDToxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- Rettof Car Wash IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Milla StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Northern Il Water CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lpc Site 1058160001Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Streator-Woodland School Dist #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Eagle Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Armstrong TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Gte North IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CRAMPTONS AUTOBODYBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Streator'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 Streator.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Streator
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Streator
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Streator
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Streator, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Streator — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (96 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 Streator
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 Streator average
Your land is one point inside Streator
Everything above resolves to Streator as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Streator Average
Streator Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Streator
- ●One soil character for all of Streator
- ●Frost dates read at Streator's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Streator's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Streator
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Streator, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Streator averages can't show:
We read public map data around Streator — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Streator average
How we know this about Streator
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 Streator’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 Streator
When does frost risk typically end in Streator?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Streator typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Streator?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Streator typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Streator?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Streator sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 17, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Streator?
The federal record around Streator is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Streator?
From about Oct 1 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 Oct 31 (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 Oct 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Streator's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Streator'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 Streator’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Streator's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,685 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Streator's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Streator's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 31 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Streator, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Streator's boundary and the 4,685 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Streator'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 Streator's 4,685 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom LaSalle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom LaSalle 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 LaSalle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Streator's 4,685 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Streator you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,685 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Streator-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisStreator sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides