Ripley County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Ripley County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ripley 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 Ripley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ripley County — the short answer
Ripley County, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 286K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 286K 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 Ripley County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ripley County's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ripley County
Across a year, Ripley County accumulates about 3,334 growing degree days above 50°F, about 178 more than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 56 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 Ripley County
Across Ripley County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Cobbsfork, Avonburg, and Cincinnati are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally 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
Well drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
25%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ripley County
The USDA soil survey maps 39% of Ripley County as well drained — but another 60% drains differently: 25% poorly drained, 20% somewhat poorly drained.
Cobbsfork is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Avonburg (17%) and Cincinnati (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 Ripley County
Each reading below is measured for Ripley 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 Ripley County are well drained, in hydrologic group C/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 Ripley 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 25% of Ripley 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
MeasuredRipley County runs about 213 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 Ripley County is in
Ripley County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Eastern Corn Belt Plains (93%) and Interior Plateau (7%). 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 Ripley County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ripley County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 213-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 Ripley County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Ripley County
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Ripley County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly29 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Ripley County
USGS estimates 165,885 lb of Glyphosate on Ripley County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (44,039 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (43,960 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 Ripley County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ripley County — 163 documented sites across 5 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 Ripley 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 Ripley County
Closest first, across Ripley County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLASTIC MOLDING CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- United Parcel ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE - VERSAILLESBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- BAKER MOTOR COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GTE NORTH INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- KellysUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 6814Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- VERSAILLES COOPERATIVE 4713Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- IN DOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MCDONALDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- VERSAILLES MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Southeastern Indiana Rural Electric Membership CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ripley 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 Ripley County.
Total Sites
163
across Ripley County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Ripley County
Severity Distribution
across Ripley County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ripley County, two things run higher than the national average across Ripley County — Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (110 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ripley 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 Ripley County average
Your land is one point inside Ripley County
Everything above resolves to Ripley County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 286K 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 Ripley County Average
Ripley County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ripley County
- ●One soil character for all of Ripley County
- ●Frost dates read at Ripley County's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ripley County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ripley County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ripley County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ripley County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ripley County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ripley County average
How we know this about Ripley 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 Ripley County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ripley County
When does frost risk typically end in Ripley County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ripley County typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Ripley County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ripley County sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 21, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ripley County?
The federal record around Ripley County is a meaningful one — 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (110), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.0 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 Ripley County's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ripley 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 Ripley County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Ripley County's own scale — its own ~213-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 163 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ripley County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ripley County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Ripley CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 163 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ripley County's boundary and the 285,716 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Ripley County spans, Eastern Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Ripley County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ripley 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 Ripley County — the ~213 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 Ripley County's 285,716 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 163 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 Ripley Countyread your own land →