Elrod, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elrod, 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 Elrod 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 Elrod — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elrod — the short answer
Elrod, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 445 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 445 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 Elrod's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elrod's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elrod
Each reading below is measured for Elrod itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElrod runs about 215 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
MeasuredElrod 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 Elrod is in
Elrod sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elrod's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ripley County.
What Grows in Elrod
Every plant below cleared Elrod's own zone 6a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elrod?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Elrod
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Elrod, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elrod
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elrod. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Arnold CornettUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Helena Agri Enterprises LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BRANDES EQUIPMENT COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Dillsboro BP Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- VERSAILLES STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- AT & T RADIO RELAY FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- WOODS TRACTOR & FARM SUPPLY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- JAY C FOOD STORE #17Brownfields · 4.6 mi
- CHRIS VOLZ MOTORS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- OHIO ROD PRODUCTSBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- OHIO ROD PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
- SOUTHEASTERN INDIANA RURAL TELEPHONE COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elrod'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 Elrod.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Elrod
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elrod
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elrod
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elrod, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elrod — Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (71 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Elrod
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 Elrod average
Your land is one point inside Elrod
Everything above resolves to Elrod as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 445 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 Elrod Average
Elrod Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Elrod
- ●One soil character for all of Elrod
- ●Frost dates read at Elrod's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elrod's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elrod
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elrod, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elrod averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elrod — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elrod average
How we know this about Elrod
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 Elrod’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 Elrod
When does frost risk typically end in Elrod?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elrod typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Elrod?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elrod typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elrod?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elrod sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 22, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elrod?
The federal record around Elrod shows 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elrod?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elrod's scale — its 6a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elrod'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 Elrod’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elrod's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 445 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elrod's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elrod's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 5 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elrod, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elrod's boundary and the 445 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elrod's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Elrodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elrod's 445 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ripley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ripley 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 Ripley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elrod's 445 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elrod you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 445 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Elrod-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaElrod sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides