Fairbanks, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairbanks, 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 Fairbanks 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 Fairbanks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairbanks — the short answer
Fairbanks, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 111 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 111 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 Fairbanks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairbanks's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairbanks
Each reading below is measured for Fairbanks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairbanks runs about 216 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
MeasuredFairbanks 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 Fairbanks is in
Fairbanks sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairbanks's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Fairbanks
Every plant below cleared Fairbanks's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairbanks?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Fairbanks
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fairbanks checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 121 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairbanks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairbanks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WC-81 FAIRBANKS, IND.Nitrate · 300 ft
- FAIRBANKS SOLARBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Indiana Michigan Power Company Subsidiary of American Electric Power Breed PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- INDIANA MICHIGAN POWER COMPANY SUBSIDARY OF AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER BREED PLANTBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- PRAIRIE CREEK MARKET & SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- PATSY STRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- T10N R10W S27 SESESE NR MIDDLETOWN, INNitrate · 4.1 mi
- JORDAN JUNCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- T10N R10W S36 NWNWNW NR PRAIRIE CRK, INNitrate · 4.4 mi
- T10N R10W S29 NWSENE NR HUTTON, INNitrate · 4.6 mi
- T10N R10W S22 SESWSE NR HUTTON, INNitrate · 5.0 mi
- GRAYSVILLE RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairbanks'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 Fairbanks.
Total Sites
117
within ~10 miles of Fairbanks
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairbanks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairbanks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairbanks, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Fairbanks. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fairbanks
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 Fairbanks average
Your land is one point inside Fairbanks
Everything above resolves to Fairbanks as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 111 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 Fairbanks Average
Fairbanks Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fairbanks
- ●One soil character for all of Fairbanks
- ●Frost dates read at Fairbanks's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairbanks's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairbanks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairbanks, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairbanks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairbanks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairbanks average
How we know this about Fairbanks
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 Fairbanks’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 Fairbanks
When does frost risk typically end in Fairbanks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairbanks typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Fairbanks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairbanks typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairbanks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairbanks sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 20, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairbanks?
The federal record around Fairbanks is a meaningful one — 117 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Nitrate 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 Fairbanks?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairbanks's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairbanks'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 Fairbanks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairbanks's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 111 acres it covers and 117 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairbanks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairbanks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 3 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 117 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairbanks, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairbanks's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairbanks's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fairbanks 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 Fairbanks's 111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairbanks's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairbanks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Fairbanks-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaFairbanks sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides