Wabash County, in Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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
Wabash County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wabash 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 Wabash County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wabash County — the short answer
Wabash County, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 264K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 264K 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 Wabash County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wabash County's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Wabash County
Across a year, Wabash County accumulates about 2,889 growing degree days above 50°F, about 267 fewer than the middle Indiana county — ahead of 18 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 Wabash County
Across Wabash County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Glynwood, Blount, and Miami are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.4–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wabash County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Wabash County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 66% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 16% well drained.
Glynwood is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Blount (12%) and Miami (9%).
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 Wabash County
Each reading below is measured for Wabash 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 Wabash County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group B/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 Wabash County runs about pH 6.4–6.7, 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
Season length
MeasuredWabash County runs about 206 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWabash 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 Wabash County is in
Wabash County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Eastern Corn Belt Plains (82%) and Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains (18%). 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 Wabash County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wabash County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 206-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 Wabash County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Wabash County
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Wabash County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Wabash County
USGS estimates 144,468 lb of Glyphosate on Wabash County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (60,693 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (50,386 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 Wabash County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wabash County — 201 documented sites across 7 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 Wabash 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 Wabash County
Closest first, across Wabash County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INNOVATION VENTURESBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Duke EnergyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Wabash Valley Reclamation Center IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WABASH CITY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- IN DOT Wabash Subdistrict Unit 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NORTH CENTRAL COOPERATIVE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WABASH COUNTY RURAL ELECTRIC MEMBERSHIP COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- THOMAS FORD LINCOLN MERCURYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- JUNCTION SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WABASH SUBDISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WABASH MATERIALS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PARKVIEW WABASH HOSPITALBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wabash 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 Wabash County.
Total Sites
201
across Wabash County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Wabash County
Severity Distribution
across Wabash County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wabash County, two things run higher than the national average across Wabash County — Toxics Release Inventory (26 sites) and PFAS (3 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Wabash 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 Wabash County average
Your land is one point inside Wabash County
Everything above resolves to Wabash County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 264K 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 Wabash County Average
Wabash County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wabash County
- ●One soil character for all of Wabash County
- ●Frost dates read at Wabash County's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wabash County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wabash County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wabash County, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wabash County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wabash County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wabash County average
How we know this about Wabash 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 Wabash County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wabash County
When does frost risk typically end in Wabash County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wabash County typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
How long is the growing season in Wabash County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wabash County sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 19, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wabash County?
The federal record around Wabash County is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (117), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Wabash County's scale — its 6a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wabash 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 Wabash County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Wabash County's own scale — its own ~206-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 201 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wabash County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wabash County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Wabash CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 201 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Wabash County's boundary and the 264,025 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Wabash County spans, Eastern Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Wabash County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wabash 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 Wabash County — the ~206 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 Wabash County's 264,025 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 201 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 Wabash Countyread your own land →