Dale, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dale, 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 Dale 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 Dale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dale — the short answer
Dale, Indiana: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Dale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dale's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dale
Each reading below is measured for Dale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDale runs about 226 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
MeasuredDale sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Dale is in
Dale sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Spencer County.
What Grows in Dale
Every plant below cleared Dale's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dale?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Dale
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dale checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 116 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chuckles 23Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DENNYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LHL PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SPENCER IND INC ASSEMBLY PLTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WINKLER INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- IN DOT Dale Sub District 662Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Caseys General Store 3578Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Circle S Foodmart 31Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DALE SUB DISTRICT 662Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- BETTAG CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DALE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CONNER MOTORS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dale'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 Dale.
Total Sites
143
within ~10 miles of Dale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
23 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dale, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Dale. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dale
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 Dale average
Your land is one point inside Dale
Everything above resolves to Dale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dale Average
Dale Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Dale
- ●One soil character for all of Dale
- ●Frost dates read at Dale's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dale's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dale, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dale average
How we know this about Dale
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 Dale’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 Dale
When does frost risk typically end in Dale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dale typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Dale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dale typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dale sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 25, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dale?
The federal record around Dale shows 143 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dale?
From about Oct 9 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 Nov 8 (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 Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dale's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dale'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 Dale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dale's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,547 acres it covers and 143 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 8 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 143 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dale's boundary and the 1,547 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dale's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dale checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dale's 1,547 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Spencer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Spencer 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 Spencer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dale's 1,547 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,547 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles 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 Dale-wide figureread your own land →