DeMotte, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in DeMotte, 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 DeMotte 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 DeMotte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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DeMotte — the short answer
DeMotte, Indiana: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- 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 5b is DeMotte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeMotte's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in DeMotte
Each reading below is measured for DeMotte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeMotte runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDeMotte sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 DeMotte is in
DeMotte sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at DeMotte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jasper County.
What Grows in DeMotte
Every plant below cleared DeMotte's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in DeMotte?
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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around DeMotte
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from DeMotte, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near DeMotte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of DeMotte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tysens Gas N GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Osburn Texaco Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ROBERT L SCHULTZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MASTER TRANSMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ZYLSTRAS SERVICE & TIRE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PAK A SAK 23Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WALGREENS 12640Brownfields · 1900 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 6908Brownfields · 2200 ft
- Onelins Gas & Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DEMOTTE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- HILLSIDE ACE HARDWAREBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- REPUBLIC SERVICES INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeMotte'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 DeMotte.
Total Sites
164
within ~10 miles of DeMotte
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of DeMotte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of DeMotte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DeMotte, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of DeMotte — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (68 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in DeMotte
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 DeMotte average
Your land is one point inside DeMotte
Everything above resolves to DeMotte 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 DeMotte Average
DeMotte Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across DeMotte
- ●One soil character for all of DeMotte
- ●Frost dates read at DeMotte's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeMotte's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in DeMotte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeMotte, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeMotte averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeMotte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeMotte average
How we know this about DeMotte
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 DeMotte’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 DeMotte
When does frost risk typically end in DeMotte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeMotte 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 DeMotte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in DeMotte typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in DeMotte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeMotte sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 13, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeMotte?
The federal record around DeMotte shows 164 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 DeMotte?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at DeMotte's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeMotte'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 DeMotte’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at DeMotte's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,295 acres it covers and 164 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeMotte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- DeMotte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 27 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near DeMotte, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- DeMotte's boundary and the 2,295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at DeMotte's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of DeMottelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so DeMotte's 2,295 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jasper County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jasper 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 Jasper County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among DeMotte's 2,295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of DeMotte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,295 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 DeMotte-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaDeMotte sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides