Edwardsport, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Edwardsport, 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 Edwardsport 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 Edwardsport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Edwardsport — the short answer
Edwardsport, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 180 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 180 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 6b is Edwardsport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Edwardsport's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Edwardsport
Each reading below is measured for Edwardsport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEdwardsport runs about 221 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
MeasuredEdwardsport sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Edwardsport is in
Edwardsport sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Edwardsport's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Edwardsport
Every plant below cleared Edwardsport's own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Edwardsport?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Edwardsport
Survey cells within 31 miles of Edwardsport checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 124 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Edwardsport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Edwardsport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VCNA PRAIRIE YARD P015Toxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- DUKE ENERGY INDIANA EDWARDSPORT IGCCToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- DUKE ENERGY INDIANA EDWARDSPORT IGCCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Duke Energy IGCCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CARNAHAN GRAIN INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MULLINS SUPPLY INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- BICKNELL MINERALS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- NORTH KNOX TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- REX'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- KNOX CO ARC PLT 4Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- IW-53 BICKNELL, IND.Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- NICKS TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Edwardsport'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 Edwardsport.
Total Sites
52
within ~10 miles of Edwardsport
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Edwardsport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Edwardsport
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Edwardsport, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Edwardsport — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (33 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 Edwardsport
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 Edwardsport average
Your land is one point inside Edwardsport
Everything above resolves to Edwardsport as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 180 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 Edwardsport Average
Edwardsport Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Edwardsport
- ●One soil character for all of Edwardsport
- ●Frost dates read at Edwardsport's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Edwardsport's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Edwardsport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Edwardsport, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Edwardsport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Edwardsport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Edwardsport average
How we know this about Edwardsport
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 Edwardsport’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 Edwardsport
When does frost risk typically end in Edwardsport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Edwardsport typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Edwardsport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Edwardsport typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Edwardsport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Edwardsport sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 23, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Edwardsport?
The federal record around Edwardsport shows 52 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Edwardsport?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Edwardsport's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Edwardsport'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 Edwardsport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Edwardsport's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 180 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Edwardsport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Edwardsport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 6 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Edwardsport, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Edwardsport's boundary and the 180 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Edwardsport's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Edwardsport 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 Edwardsport's 180 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Edwardsport's 180 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Edwardsport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 180 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Edwardsport-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaEdwardsport sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides