Fort Branch, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Fort Branch, 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 Fort Branch 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 Fort Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Branch — the short answer
Fort Branch, Indiana: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 696 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 696 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 7a is Fort Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Branch's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Branch
Each reading below is measured for Fort Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Branch runs about 228 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
MeasuredFort Branch sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Fort Branch is in
Fort Branch sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gibson County.
What Grows in Fort Branch
Every plant below cleared Fort Branch's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Branch?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Fort Branch
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fort Branch checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 146 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RON PATTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ATTEBERRY MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HOEFLING TIRE & SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FASTBREAK CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Tobacco Road D47Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Excel Corporation Division of CargillUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FIRE STATION 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SOUTHERN INDIANA GAS & ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FORT BRANCH BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EMGE PACKING COMPANYSuperfund · 2600 ft
- Caseys General Store 3021Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WILBERT BURIAL VAULT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Branch'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 Fort Branch.
Total Sites
185
within ~10 miles of Fort Branch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Branch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Branch — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Branch
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 Fort Branch average
Your land is one point inside Fort Branch
Everything above resolves to Fort Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 696 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 Fort Branch Average
Fort Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fort Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Branch's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Branch's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Branch, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Branch average
How we know this about Fort Branch
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 Fort Branch’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 Fort Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Branch typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Fort Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Branch typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Branch sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Branch?
The federal record around Fort Branch is a meaningful one — 185 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (117), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Branch?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Branch's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Branch'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 Fort Branch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Branch's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 696 acres it covers and 185 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 185 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Branch's boundary and the 696 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Branch's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fort Branch 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 Fort Branch's 696 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gibson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gibson 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 Gibson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Branch's 696 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 696 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Branch-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaFort Branch sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides