Jalapa, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Jalapa, 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 Jalapa 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 Jalapa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jalapa — the short answer
Jalapa, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 366 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 366 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 Jalapa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jalapa's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jalapa
Each reading below is measured for Jalapa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJalapa runs about 209 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
MeasuredJalapa 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 Jalapa is in
Jalapa sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jalapa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Jalapa
Every plant below cleared Jalapa's own zone 6a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jalapa?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Jalapa
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Jalapa, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jalapa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jalapa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILEY METAL FABRICATING INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- Handy Andy 2222Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- LAFONTAINE GENERATOR EXCHANGEBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- RICHARD MIDDLESWORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- F & H Fertilizer CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- CRUMRINE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- SNYDERS TIRE & BATTERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- North Central CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- SPECIALTY MOTOR SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- S & J SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- THOMPSON AND SONS BODY WORKSBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- CASE POWER & EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jalapa'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 Jalapa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jalapa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jalapa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jalapa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Jalapa — Toxics Release Inventory (28 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (175 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Jalapa
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 Jalapa average
Your land is one point inside Jalapa
Everything above resolves to Jalapa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 366 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 Jalapa Average
Jalapa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Jalapa
- ●One soil character for all of Jalapa
- ●Frost dates read at Jalapa's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jalapa's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jalapa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jalapa, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jalapa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jalapa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jalapa average
How we know this about Jalapa
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 Jalapa’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 Jalapa
When does frost risk typically end in Jalapa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jalapa typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Jalapa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jalapa typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jalapa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jalapa sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 21, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jalapa?
The federal record around Jalapa is a meaningful one — 273 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (175), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.1 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 Jalapa?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jalapa's scale — its 6a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jalapa'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 Jalapa’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jalapa's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 366 acres it covers and 273 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jalapa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jalapa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 4 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 273 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jalapa, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jalapa's boundary and the 366 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jalapa's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Jalapalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jalapa's 366 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jalapa's 366 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jalapa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 366 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.1 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 Jalapa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaJalapa sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides