Weldon, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Weldon, 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 Weldon 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 Weldon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Weldon — the short answer
Weldon, Illinois: USDA zone 6a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 171 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 171 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 Weldon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Weldon's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Weldon
Each reading below is measured for Weldon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWeldon runs about 210 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
MeasuredWeldon 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 Weldon is in
Weldon sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Weldon's own centroid rather than borrowed from De Witt County.
What Grows in Weldon
Every plant below cleared Weldon's own zone 6a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Weldon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Weldon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Weldon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Weldon Cooperative Grain CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- UnknownUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Echo Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Westray Amoco SerUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Weldon Fertilizer & Lumber IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 19n 4e-33.1gNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 20N 3E-36.7dNitrate · 4.1 mi
- 19N 4E-33.2eNitrate · 4.1 mi
- Clinton Lake MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- 19N 3E-26.5dNitrate · 4.9 mi
- Smileys Gas & StuffUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 20N 4E-16.8fNitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Weldon'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 Weldon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Weldon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Weldon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Weldon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Weldon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Weldon
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 Weldon average
Your land is one point inside Weldon
Everything above resolves to Weldon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 171 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 Weldon Average
Weldon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Weldon
- ●One soil character for all of Weldon
- ●Frost dates read at Weldon's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Weldon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Weldon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Weldon, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Weldon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Weldon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weldon average
How we know this about Weldon
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 Weldon’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 Weldon
When does frost risk typically end in Weldon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Weldon typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Weldon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Weldon typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Weldon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Weldon sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 18, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Weldon?
The federal record around Weldon shows 66 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Weldon?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Weldon's scale — its 6a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Weldon'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 Weldon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Weldon's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 171 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Weldon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Weldon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 1 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Weldon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Weldon's boundary and the 171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Weldon'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 Weldon's 171 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom De Witt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom De Witt 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 De Witt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Weldon's 171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Weldon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 171 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 Weldon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisWeldon sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.