Cates, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cates, 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 Cates 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 Cates — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cates — the short answer
Cates, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 128 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 128 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 Cates's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cates's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cates
Each reading below is measured for Cates itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCates runs about 200 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
MeasuredCates 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 Cates is in
Cates sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cates's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fountain County.
What Grows in Cates
Every plant below cleared Cates's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cates?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Cates
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cates. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JONES RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PATTONS FULL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- STAN CLARK INCORPORATED KINGMAN BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- MIDWAY GAS & VIDEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- JANE MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- DOTY TANGIER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Philips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- NORFOLK SOUTHERN RAILROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- WABASH HANDY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- GIBSON MOTOR CO INCBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- DENNYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 6.4 mi
- CROWDERS SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cates'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 Cates.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Cates
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cates
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cates
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cates, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Cates. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cates
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 Cates average
Your land is one point inside Cates
Everything above resolves to Cates as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 128 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 Cates Average
Cates Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cates
- ●One soil character for all of Cates
- ●Frost dates read at Cates's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cates's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cates
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cates, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cates averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cates — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cates average
How we know this about Cates
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 Cates’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 Cates
When does frost risk typically end in Cates?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cates typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Cates?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cates typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cates?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cates sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 10, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cates?
The federal record around Cates is a meaningful one — 70 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Cates?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cates's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cates'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 Cates’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cates's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 128 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cates's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cates's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 24 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cates, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cates's boundary and the 128 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cates's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cates's 128 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fountain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fountain 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 Fountain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cates's 128 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cates you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 128 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.3 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 Cates-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaCates sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides