Fontanet, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Fontanet, 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 Fontanet 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 Fontanet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fontanet — the short answer
Fontanet, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 660 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 660 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 Fontanet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fontanet's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fontanet
Each reading below is measured for Fontanet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFontanet runs about 211 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
MeasuredFontanet 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 Fontanet is in
Fontanet sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fontanet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vigo County.
What Grows in Fontanet
Every plant below cleared Fontanet's own zone 6a and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fontanet?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Fontanet
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fontanet checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 92 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fontanet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fontanet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T13NR8WS13 NWSENE NR BRAZIL, INNitrate · 1300 ft
- FRANS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- T13N R8W S12 SESESE NR BRAZIL, INNitrate · 0.6 mi
- T13NR7WS6 SESESW NR BRAZIL, INNitrate · 1.8 mi
- T13N R7W S17 SWSESW NR BRAZIL, INNitrate · 1.9 mi
- T13N R7W S30 SWNWSW NR BRAZIL, INNitrate · 2.3 mi
- T13N R8W S10 NESESW-ROSEDALE,INNitrate · 2.3 mi
- T13N R8W S36 SESENE NR BRAZIL, INNitrate · 3.0 mi
- T13N R8W S27 SWNWNW NR ROSEDALE, INNitrate · 3.1 mi
- T13N R8W S4 SENESENitrate · 3.3 mi
- T13N R8W S21 NWNWNW NR ROSEDALE,INNitrate · 3.6 mi
- WAUGHS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fontanet'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 Fontanet.
Total Sites
375
within ~10 miles of Fontanet
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fontanet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fontanet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fontanet, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fontanet — Superfund (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (24 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fontanet
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 Fontanet average
Your land is one point inside Fontanet
Everything above resolves to Fontanet as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 660 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 Fontanet Average
Fontanet Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fontanet
- ●One soil character for all of Fontanet
- ●Frost dates read at Fontanet's scale: Apr 3 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fontanet's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fontanet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fontanet, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fontanet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fontanet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fontanet average
How we know this about Fontanet
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 Fontanet’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 Fontanet
When does frost risk typically end in Fontanet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fontanet typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Fontanet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fontanet typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fontanet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fontanet sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 17, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fontanet?
The federal record around Fontanet is a meaningful one — 375 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (172), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles 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 Fontanet?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fontanet's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fontanet'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 Fontanet’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fontanet's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 660 acres it covers and 375 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fontanet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fontanet's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Oct 31 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 375 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fontanet, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fontanet's boundary and the 660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fontanet's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fontanet 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 Fontanet's 660 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vigo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vigo 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 Vigo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fontanet's 660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fontanet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Fontanet-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaFontanet sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides