Posey County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Posey County lies within the Ohio River Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Posey County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Posey 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 Posey County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Posey County — the short answer
Posey County, Indiana: USDA zone 7a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 262K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 262K 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 7a is Posey County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Posey County's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Posey County
Across a year, Posey County accumulates about 4,030 growing degree days above 50°F, about 874 more than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 89 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 Posey County
Across Posey County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Alford, Wakeland, and Iona are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.4, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Posey County
The USDA soil survey maps 43% of Posey County as well drained — but another 54% drains differently: 19% poorly drained, 19% somewhat poorly drained.
Alford is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Wakeland (9%) and Iona (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 Posey County
Each reading below is measured for Posey 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 Posey County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Posey County runs about pH 5.9–6.4, 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 20% of Posey 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
MeasuredPosey County runs about 232 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 Posey County is in
Posey County sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Posey County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Posey County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 232-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 Posey County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Posey County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Posey County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 144 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly50 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Posey County
USGS estimates 263,620 lb of Glyphosate on Posey County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (77,222 lb) and Acetochlor (53,707 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 Posey County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Posey County — 204 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 Posey 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 Posey County
Closest first, across Posey County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Air Liquide Industrial US Limited PartnershipUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Marathon Petroleum Company LPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CF Industries Sales LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Babcock & WilcoxUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 005N013W36F001Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- PY-7 SPRINGFIELD, IND.Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- OLIVER GAS STORAGE FIELDBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- WARTSILA NSD NORTH AMERICA, INC.Brownfields · 3.2 mi
- STALLINGS NEW HARMONY INNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 006S013W28K005Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- PY-3 MT. VERNON, IND.Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 005S012W19K001Nitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Posey 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 Posey County.
Total Sites
204
across Posey County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Posey County
Severity Distribution
across Posey County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Posey County, two things run higher than the national average across Posey County — Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites) and Nitrate (56 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Posey 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 Posey County average
Your land is one point inside Posey County
Everything above resolves to Posey County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 262K 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 Posey County Average
Posey County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Posey County
- ●One soil character for all of Posey County
- ●Frost dates read at Posey County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Posey County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Posey County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Posey County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Posey County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Posey County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Posey County average
How we know this about Posey 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 Posey County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Posey County
When does frost risk typically end in Posey County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Posey County typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Posey County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Posey County sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 27, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Posey County?
The federal record around Posey County is a meaningful one — 204 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Posey County's scale — its 7a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Posey 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 Posey County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Posey County's own scale — its own ~232-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 204 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Posey County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Posey County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Posey CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 204 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Posey County's boundary and the 262,006 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Posey County sitting wholly inside the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Posey County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Posey 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 Posey County — the ~232 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 Posey County's 262,006 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 204 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 Posey Countyread your own land →