Decatur County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Decatur County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Decatur County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Decatur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Decatur County — the short answer
Decatur County, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 238K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 238K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6b is Decatur County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Decatur County's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Decatur County
Across a year, Decatur County accumulates about 3,327 growing degree days above 50°F, about 171 more than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 54 of Indiana’s 92 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Decatur County
Across Decatur County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Fincastle, Miami, and Cyclone are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
28%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Decatur County
The USDA soil survey maps 33% of Decatur County as moderately well drained — but another 67% drains differently: 30% somewhat poorly drained, 18% well drained.
Fincastle is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Miami (13%) and Cyclone (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Decatur County
Each reading below is measured for Decatur County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Decatur County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group B/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Decatur County runs about pH 5.9–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 18% of Decatur County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredDecatur County runs about 215 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
The kind of country Decatur County is in
Decatur County sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Decatur County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Decatur County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 215-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile.
Is it too late to plant in Decatur County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Decatur County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Decatur County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Decatur County
USGS estimates 165,695 lb of Glyphosate on Decatur County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (69,574 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (65,912 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Decatur County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Decatur County — 153 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Decatur County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Decatur County
Closest first, across Decatur County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREENSBURG MUNICIPAL WATER WORKSPFAS · 1.1 mi
- Greensburg Country ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DECATUR AIRPORT INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- American LiftsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AMERICAN LIFTSToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- BLASDEL ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- ADVANCED BEARING MATERIALS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- ADVANCED BEARING MATERIALS LLCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- BRUNNI CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- GREEN BARN USAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- AL REYNOLDS BUICK OLDS PONTIAC GMCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- AL REYNOLDS BUICK OLDS PONTIAC GMCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Decatur County'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 Decatur County.
Total Sites
153
across Decatur County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Decatur County
Severity Distribution
across Decatur County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Decatur County, two things run higher than the national average across Decatur County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Decatur County
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 Decatur County average
Your land is one point inside Decatur County
Everything above resolves to Decatur County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 238K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Decatur County Average
Decatur County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Decatur County
- ●One soil character for all of Decatur County
- ●Frost dates read at Decatur County's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Decatur County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Decatur County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Decatur County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Decatur County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Decatur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Decatur County average
How we know this about Decatur County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Decatur County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Decatur County
When does frost risk typically end in Decatur County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Decatur County typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Decatur County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Decatur County sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 22, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Decatur County?
The federal record around Decatur County shows 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest PFAS record about 1.1 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Decatur County's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Decatur County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Indiana's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Decatur County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Decatur County's own scale — its own ~215-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 153 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Decatur County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Decatur County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Decatur CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 153 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Decatur County's boundary and the 238,443 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Decatur County sitting wholly inside the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Decatur County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Decatur County — the ~215 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Decatur County's 238,443 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 153 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Decatur Countyread your own land →