DeKalb County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
DeKalb County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across DeKalb 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 DeKalb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
DeKalb County — the short answer
DeKalb County, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 232K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 232K 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 6a is DeKalb County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeKalb County's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in DeKalb County
Across a year, DeKalb County accumulates about 2,752 growing degree days above 50°F, about 404 fewer than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 6 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 DeKalb County
Across DeKalb County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Blount, Glynwood, and Morley are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.4–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
24%
Hydric soils
31%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across DeKalb County
The USDA soil survey maps 36% of DeKalb County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 63% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 23% poorly drained.
Blount is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Glynwood (15%) and Morley (5%).
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 DeKalb County
Each reading below is measured for DeKalb 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 DeKalb County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across DeKalb County runs about pH 6.4–6.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredDeKalb County runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeKalb County 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 DeKalb County is in
DeKalb County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Eastern Corn Belt Plains (90%) and Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains (10%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in DeKalb County
We scored all 1,086 plants against DeKalb County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 198-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 DeKalb County?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around DeKalb County
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from DeKalb County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly38 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in DeKalb County
USGS estimates 110,806 lb of Glyphosate on DeKalb County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (38,840 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (24,495 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 DeKalb County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across DeKalb County — 295 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across DeKalb County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near DeKalb County
Closest first, across DeKalb County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TERRYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Auburn Transfer StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DE KALB HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- VIRGIL BASSETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- REEVES BROTHERS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- INDIANA DECORATIVE PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- S & S Express 106Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- KEITHS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- DE KALB COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- WATERLOO BROWNFIELD SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- KITCHEN QUIP INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeKalb 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 DeKalb County.
Total Sites
295
across DeKalb County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across DeKalb County
Severity Distribution
across DeKalb County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DeKalb County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 55 sites across DeKalb County. 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 DeKalb 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 DeKalb County average
Your land is one point inside DeKalb County
Everything above resolves to DeKalb County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 232K 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 DeKalb County Average
DeKalb County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across DeKalb County
- ●One soil character for all of DeKalb County
- ●Frost dates read at DeKalb County's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeKalb County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in DeKalb County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeKalb County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeKalb County averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeKalb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeKalb County average
How we know this about DeKalb 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 DeKalb County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about DeKalb County
When does frost risk typically end in DeKalb County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeKalb County typically lands around Apr 14, 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 May 5.
How long is the growing season in DeKalb County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeKalb County sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 15, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeKalb County?
The federal record around DeKalb County is a meaningful one — 295 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (147), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.3 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.
Everything above is measured at DeKalb County's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeKalb 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 DeKalb County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at DeKalb County's own scale — its own ~198-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 295 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeKalb County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- DeKalb County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in DeKalb CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 295 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- DeKalb County's boundary and the 232,214 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions DeKalb County spans, Eastern Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in DeKalb County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto DeKalb 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 DeKalb County — the ~198 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 DeKalb County's 232,214 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 295 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 DeKalb Countyread your own land →