North Manchester, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in North Manchester, 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 North Manchester 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 North Manchester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
North Manchester — the short answer
North Manchester, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 North Manchester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Manchester's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Manchester
Each reading below is measured for North Manchester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Manchester runs about 203 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
MeasuredNorth Manchester 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 North Manchester is in
North Manchester sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Manchester's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wabash County is mostly Eastern Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Manchester
Every plant below cleared North Manchester's own zone 6a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Manchester?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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 North Manchester
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from North Manchester, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Manchester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Manchester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER WOOD CRAFTS COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MIDWEST POULTRY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PEABODY COAL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SHEPHARDS CHEVROLET OLDSMOBILE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Strauss Veal Feeds IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- VerizonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- STRAUSS VEAL FEEDS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- Caseys General Store 3057Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PAULS 66 SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING COMPANY LPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WABASH COUNTY FARM BUREAU COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- United Service Station 6069Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Manchester'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 North Manchester.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of North Manchester
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Manchester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Manchester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Manchester, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Manchester — Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (79 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.
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 North Manchester
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 North Manchester average
Your land is one point inside North Manchester
Everything above resolves to North Manchester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 North Manchester Average
North Manchester Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across North Manchester
- ●One soil character for all of North Manchester
- ●Frost dates read at North Manchester's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Manchester's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Manchester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Manchester, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Manchester averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Manchester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Manchester average
How we know this about North Manchester
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 North Manchester’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 North Manchester
When does frost risk typically end in North Manchester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Manchester typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
When is the first frost in North Manchester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Manchester 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 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Manchester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Manchester sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 17, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Manchester?
The federal record around North Manchester is a meaningful one — 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 North Manchester?
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 North Manchester's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Manchester'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 North Manchester’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Manchester's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,269 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Manchester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Manchester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 31 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Manchester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Manchester's boundary and the 2,269 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Manchester sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of North Manchesterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Manchester's 2,269 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wabash County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wabash 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 Wabash County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Manchester's 2,269 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Manchester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,269 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 North Manchester-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaNorth Manchester sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides