Mellott, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mellott, 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 Mellott 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 Mellott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mellott — the short answer
Mellott, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 219 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 219 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 Mellott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mellott's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mellott
Each reading below is measured for Mellott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMellott runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMellott 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 Mellott is in
Mellott sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mellott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fountain County.
What Grows in Mellott
Every plant below cleared Mellott's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mellott?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Mellott
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mellott checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mellott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mellott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MELLOTT MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- PROCESS SYSTEMS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 300 ft
- Ceres Solutions 233Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RIVERS EDGE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Hai PetroleumUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- TRI COUNTY TELEPHONE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- RATCLIFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- HILLSBORO UTILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- ELSIES PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- VEEDERSBURG WEIGHT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- MCGRADY HOG FARM #1CAFO · 5.2 mi
- WC-62 ATTICA, IND.Nitrate · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mellott'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 Mellott.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Mellott
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mellott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mellott
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Mellott
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 Mellott average
Your land is one point inside Mellott
Everything above resolves to Mellott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 219 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 Mellott Average
Mellott Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mellott
- ●One soil character for all of Mellott
- ●Frost dates read at Mellott's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mellott's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mellott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mellott, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mellott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mellott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mellott average
How we know this about Mellott
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 Mellott’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 Mellott
When does frost risk typically end in Mellott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mellott typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Mellott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mellott typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mellott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mellott sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 10, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mellott?
The federal record around Mellott is a meaningful one — 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mellott?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mellott's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mellott'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 Mellott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mellott's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 219 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mellott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mellott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 24 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mellott, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mellott's boundary and the 219 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mellott's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mellott 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 Mellott's 219 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fountain County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fountain 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 Fountain County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mellott's 219 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mellott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 219 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mellott-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaMellott sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides