Jennings 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Jennings County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Jennings 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 Jennings County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jennings County — the short answer
Jennings County, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 241K 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 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 241K 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 Jennings County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jennings County's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Jennings County
Across a year, Jennings County accumulates about 3,459 growing degree days above 50°F, about 303 more than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 70 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 Jennings County
Across Jennings County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Cobbsfork, Nabb, and Avonburg 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, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
19%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Jennings County
The USDA soil survey maps 35% of Jennings County as moderately well drained — but another 62% drains differently: 26% well drained, 19% poorly drained.
Cobbsfork is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Nabb (11%) and Avonburg (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 Jennings County
Each reading below is measured for Jennings 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 Jennings County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/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 Jennings County runs about pH 5.9, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 19% of Jennings 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
MeasuredJennings County runs about 214 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 Jennings County is in
Jennings 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 Jennings County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Jennings County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 214-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 Jennings County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 4 — 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 Jennings County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Jennings County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 39 miles off. What to watch for.
What gets applied to farmland in Jennings County
USGS estimates 124,631 lb of Glyphosate on Jennings County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (27,745 lb) and Atrazine (22,001 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 Jennings County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Jennings County — 100 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Jennings 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 Jennings County
Closest first, across Jennings County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIEL BROTHERS OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CRYSTAL FLASH PETROLEUM CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CVS 6808Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- HORSTMANS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHRYSLER DEALERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CARPENTER BODY WORKS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MONDAYS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Swifty Food Mart 164Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- North Vernon Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kocolene Service Station 17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Frontier CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NORTH VERNON BRANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jennings 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 Jennings County.
Total Sites
100
across Jennings County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Jennings County
Severity Distribution
across Jennings County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jennings County, two things run higher than the national average across Jennings County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Jennings 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 Jennings County average
Your land is one point inside Jennings County
Everything above resolves to Jennings County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 241K 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 Jennings County Average
Jennings County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Jennings County
- ●One soil character for all of Jennings County
- ●Frost dates read at Jennings County's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jennings County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Jennings County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jennings County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jennings County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jennings County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jennings County average
How we know this about Jennings 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 Jennings County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Jennings County
When does frost risk typically end in Jennings County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jennings 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 Jennings County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jennings County sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 21, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jennings County?
The federal record around Jennings County shows 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Jennings County's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jennings 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 Jennings County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Jennings County's own scale — its own ~214-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 100 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jennings County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jennings County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Jennings CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 100 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Jennings County's boundary and the 241,024 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Jennings County sitting wholly inside the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Jennings 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 Jennings County — the ~214 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 Jennings County's 241,024 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 100 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 Jennings Countyread your own land →