Manilla, 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.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Manilla, 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 Manilla 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 Manilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manilla — the short answer
Manilla, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 145 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 145 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 Manilla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manilla's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manilla
Each reading below is measured for Manilla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredManilla 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
MeasuredManilla 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 Manilla is in
Manilla sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Manilla's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rush County.
What Grows in Manilla
Every plant below cleared Manilla'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 Manilla?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Manilla
Survey cells within 31 miles of Manilla checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 59 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Manilla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manilla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PEPSI COLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DE CARMONYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Floyd Crim & Sons IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NAWQA AG WELL TP2 NEAR BLUE RIDGE, INNitrate · 2.2 mi
- NAWQA AG WELL TP2RESET NEAR BLUE RIDGE, INNitrate · 2.2 mi
- DURBINS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Shelby County CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- NAWQA AG WELL TP6 NEAR HOMER, INNitrate · 4.7 mi
- ARLINGTON AGRICULTURE CENTER INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- ARLINGTON ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- SOIL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- NIEHOFF TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manilla'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 Manilla.
Total Sites
263
within ~10 miles of Manilla
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manilla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manilla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Manilla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Manilla — Toxics Release Inventory (33 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Manilla
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 Manilla average
Your land is one point inside Manilla
Everything above resolves to Manilla as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 145 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 Manilla Average
Manilla Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Manilla
- ●One soil character for all of Manilla
- ●Frost dates read at Manilla's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manilla's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manilla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manilla, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manilla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manilla average
How we know this about Manilla
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 Manilla’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 Manilla
When does frost risk typically end in Manilla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manilla typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Manilla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manilla typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manilla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manilla sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 18, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manilla?
The federal record around Manilla is a meaningful one — 263 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (149), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Manilla?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manilla's scale — its 6a band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manilla'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 Manilla’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Manilla's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 145 acres it covers and 263 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manilla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manilla's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 1 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 263 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manilla, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manilla's boundary and the 145 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 Manilla's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Manilla 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 Manilla's 145 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rush County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rush 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 Rush County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manilla's 145 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manilla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 145 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Manilla-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaManilla sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides