Culver, 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.
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.
Even in Culver, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Culver lot. 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 Culver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Culver — the short answer
Culver, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 746 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 746 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Culver's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Culver's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Culver
Each reading below is measured for Culver itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCulver 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCulver 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 Culver is in
Culver sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Culver's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Culver
Every plant below cleared Culver's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Culver?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Culver
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Culver, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Culver
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Culver. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CVS PHARMACY 6539Brownfields · 150 ft
- MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- GORDON CULTICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- L & M SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Dairy Barn ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HATTEN MOTOR SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CULVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- M & M AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- EASTERDAY CONSTRUCTION COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ACPI WOOD PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ACPI WOOD PRODUCTS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- CULVER FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Culver'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 Culver.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Culver
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Culver
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Culver
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Culver, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Culver — Underground Storage Tanks (82 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Culver
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 Culver average
Your land is one point inside Culver
Everything above resolves to Culver as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 746 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Culver Average
Culver Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Culver
- ●One soil character for all of Culver
- ●Frost dates read at Culver's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Culver's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Culver
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Culver, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Culver averages can't show:
We read public map data around Culver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Culver average
How we know this about Culver
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Culver’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Culver
When does frost risk typically end in Culver?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Culver typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Culver?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Culver typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Culver?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Culver sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 15, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Culver?
The federal record around Culver is a meaningful one — 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Culver?
From about Sep 29 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Culver's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Culver's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Culver’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Culver's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 746 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Culver's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Culver's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 29 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Culver, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Culver's boundary and the 746 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Culver's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Culverlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Culver's 746 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall County
- The growing challenges every Indiana grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Indiana
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Culver's 746 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Culver you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 746 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Culver-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaCulver sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides