Otisco, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Otisco, 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 Otisco 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 Otisco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Otisco — the short answer
Otisco, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 255 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 255 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 6b is Otisco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Otisco's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Otisco
Each reading below is measured for Otisco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOtisco runs about 220 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
MeasuredOtisco sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Otisco is in
Otisco sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Otisco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clark County.
What Grows in Otisco
Every plant below cleared Otisco's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Otisco?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Otisco
Survey cells within 31 miles of Otisco checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 41 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Otisco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Otisco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- The Store in OtiscoUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- REYNOLDS FEED SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARYSVILLE HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- US FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION VOR ABBUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- FLUID CONTROL SYSTEMS INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- LINDAS DELI & GROCERY LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- GUTHRIE BUILDING SUPPLY CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- MEDICAL CENTER OF SOUTHERN INDIANAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- DOUGLAS MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- HARDY OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- JAMES PARRISHUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- FURNISH MARATHON INCBrownfields · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Otisco'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 Otisco.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Otisco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Otisco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Otisco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Otisco, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Otisco — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Otisco
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 Otisco average
Your land is one point inside Otisco
Everything above resolves to Otisco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 255 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 Otisco Average
Otisco Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Otisco
- ●One soil character for all of Otisco
- ●Frost dates read at Otisco's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Otisco's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Otisco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Otisco, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Otisco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Otisco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Otisco average
How we know this about Otisco
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 Otisco’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 Otisco
When does frost risk typically end in Otisco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Otisco typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Otisco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Otisco typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Otisco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Otisco sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Otisco?
The federal record around Otisco is a meaningful one — 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), 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 Otisco?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Otisco's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Otisco'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 Otisco’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Otisco's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 255 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Otisco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Otisco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Otisco, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Otisco's boundary and the 255 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Otisco's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Otisco 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 Otisco's 255 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clark 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 Clark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Otisco's 255 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Otisco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 255 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 Otisco-wide figureread your own land →
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