Ora, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ora, 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 Ora 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 Ora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ora — the short answer
Ora, Indiana: USDA zone 5b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 337 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 337 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 5b is Ora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ora's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ora
Each reading below is measured for Ora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOra runs about 198 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
MeasuredOra sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Ora is in
Ora sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ora's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Starke County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ora
Every plant below cleared Ora's own zone 5b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ora?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Ora
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ora checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J & K DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WHEELER AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CALIFORNIA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- NW-48 BEARDSTOWN, IND.Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- KP KornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- BASS LAKE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- NW-50 BASS LAKE, IND.Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- BASS LAKE PUB RISTORANTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- MONTEREY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- NW-11 MONTEREY, IND.Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- ZEHNER & SONS EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- GOODS AMOCO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ora'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 Ora.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Ora
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ora, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ora — Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (99 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 Ora
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 Ora average
Your land is one point inside Ora
Everything above resolves to Ora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 337 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 Ora Average
Ora Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ora
- ●One soil character for all of Ora
- ●Frost dates read at Ora's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ora's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ora, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ora average
How we know this about Ora
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 Ora’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 Ora
When does frost risk typically end in Ora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ora typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Ora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ora typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ora sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 13, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ora?
The federal record around Ora is a meaningful one — 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (99), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Ora?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ora's scale — its 5b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ora'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 Ora’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ora's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 337 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 27 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ora, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ora's boundary and the 337 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ora sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ora 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 Ora's 337 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Starke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Starke 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 Starke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ora's 337 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 337 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Ora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaOra sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides