Fountain County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Fountain County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Fountain 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 Fountain County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fountain County — the short answer
Fountain County, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 253K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 253K 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 Fountain County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fountain County's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Fountain County
Across a year, Fountain County accumulates about 3,200 growing degree days above 50°F, about 44 more than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 47 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 Fountain County
Across Fountain County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Fincastle, Yeddo, and Russell are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
32%
Hydric soils
22%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Fountain County
The USDA soil survey maps 35% of Fountain County as well drained — but another 63% drains differently: 30% somewhat poorly drained, 21% poorly drained.
Fincastle is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Yeddo (7%) and Russell (7%).
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 Fountain County
Each reading below is measured for Fountain 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 Fountain County are well drained, in hydrologic group B/D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Fountain County runs about pH 6.2–6.7, 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 22% of Fountain 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
MeasuredFountain County runs about 201 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 Fountain County is in
Fountain 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 Fountain County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Fountain County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 201-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 Fountain 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 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 25 — 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 Fountain County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fountain County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 62 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Fountain County
USGS estimates 200,668 lb of Glyphosate on Fountain County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (77,903 lb) and Acetochlor (52,272 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 Fountain County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Fountain County — 96 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 Fountain 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 Fountain County
Closest first, across Fountain County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THYSSENKRUPP CRANKSHAFT COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- THYSSENKRUPP CRANKSHAFT COMPANYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MASTERGUARD CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- MASTERGUARD CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Caseys General Store 3008Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Veedersburg MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- INDOT VEEDERSBURG SUBDISTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- IN DOT Veedersburg UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOUTHEAST FOUNTAIN COUNTY SCHOOL CORPORATIONSuperfund · 1.2 mi
- SOUTHEAST FOUNTAIN SCHOOL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FI Mitchell Construction CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fountain 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 Fountain County.
Total Sites
96
across Fountain County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Fountain County
Severity Distribution
across Fountain County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fountain County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 6 sites across Fountain County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fountain 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 Fountain County average
Your land is one point inside Fountain County
Everything above resolves to Fountain County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 253K 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 Fountain County Average
Fountain County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fountain County
- ●One soil character for all of Fountain County
- ●Frost dates read at Fountain County's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fountain County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Fountain County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fountain County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fountain County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fountain County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fountain County average
How we know this about Fountain 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 Fountain County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Fountain County
When does frost risk typically end in Fountain County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fountain County 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.
How long is the growing season in Fountain County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fountain County sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fountain County?
The federal record around Fountain County is a meaningful one — 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 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 Fountain County's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fountain 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 Fountain County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Fountain County's own scale — its own ~201-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 96 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fountain County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fountain County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Fountain CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 96 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Fountain County's boundary and the 253,223 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fountain County sitting wholly inside the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Fountain 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 Fountain County — the ~201 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 Fountain County's 253,223 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 96 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 Fountain Countyread your own land →