Ferdinand, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ferdinand, 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 Ferdinand 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 Ferdinand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ferdinand — the short answer
Ferdinand, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Ferdinand's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ferdinand's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ferdinand
Each reading below is measured for Ferdinand itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFerdinand runs about 223 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
MeasuredFerdinand 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 Ferdinand is in
Ferdinand sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ferdinand's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dubois County is mostly Interior Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ferdinand
Every plant below cleared Ferdinand's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ferdinand?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 Ferdinand
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ferdinand checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 110 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ferdinand
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ferdinand. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEITH FRITZ FINE FURNITUREBrownfields · 400 ft
- HASENOUR MOTOR COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Circle A 113RUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SEUFERT CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FOREST PARK JR SR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HAGEDORNS SERVICE CTRBrownfields · 1300 ft
- FERDINAND STANDARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CIRCLE S MART 32Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DMI FURNITUREBrownfields · 1900 ft
- DMI Furniture IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CIRCLE A FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HAGEDORN'S BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ferdinand'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 Ferdinand.
Total Sites
163
within ~10 miles of Ferdinand
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
25 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ferdinand
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ferdinand
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ferdinand, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Ferdinand. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ferdinand
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 Ferdinand average
Your land is one point inside Ferdinand
Everything above resolves to Ferdinand as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ferdinand Average
Ferdinand Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ferdinand
- ●One soil character for all of Ferdinand
- ●Frost dates read at Ferdinand's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ferdinand's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ferdinand
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ferdinand, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ferdinand averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ferdinand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ferdinand average
How we know this about Ferdinand
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 Ferdinand’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 Ferdinand
When does frost risk typically end in Ferdinand?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ferdinand typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Ferdinand?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ferdinand typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ferdinand?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ferdinand sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 24, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ferdinand?
The federal record around Ferdinand shows 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), the nearest Brownfields 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 Ferdinand?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ferdinand's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ferdinand'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 Ferdinand’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ferdinand's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,470 acres it covers and 163 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ferdinand's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ferdinand's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 7 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 163 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ferdinand, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ferdinand's boundary and the 1,470 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ferdinand sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ferdinand 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 Ferdinand's 1,470 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dubois County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dubois 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 Dubois County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ferdinand's 1,470 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ferdinand you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,470 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Ferdinand-wide figureread your own land →