Berne, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Berne, 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 Berne 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 Berne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berne — the short answer
Berne, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- 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
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Berne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berne's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berne
Each reading below is measured for Berne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerne runs about 211 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
MeasuredBerne 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 Berne is in
Berne sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Berne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Berne
Every plant below cleared Berne's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berne?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Berne
Survey cells within 31 miles of Berne checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Berne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BERNE COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BERNE MINI SERVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- SCHWARTZ MARATHON SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- AD-20 BERNE, IND.Nitrate · 900 ft
- MOSER MOTOR SALES INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- MOSER MOTOR SALES INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EP GRAPHICSBrownfields · 1500 ft
- BERNE CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PHILLIPS 66 BERNE SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SWISS CARRIAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DECATUR INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 2000 ft
- AD-21 BERNE, IND.Nitrate · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berne'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 Berne.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Berne
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berne, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Berne — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Berne
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 Berne average
Your land is one point inside Berne
Everything above resolves to Berne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Berne Average
Berne Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Berne
- ●One soil character for all of Berne
- ●Frost dates read at Berne's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berne's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berne, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berne average
How we know this about Berne
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 Berne’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 Berne
When does frost risk typically end in Berne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berne typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Berne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berne 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 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berne sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 23, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berne?
The federal record around Berne shows 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), 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 Berne?
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 Berne's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berne'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 Berne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Berne's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,480 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 6 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berne's boundary and the 1,480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Berne's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Berne checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berne's 1,480 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams County
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berne's 1,480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,480 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 Berne-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaBerne sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides