Otwell, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Otwell, 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 Otwell 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 Otwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Otwell — the short answer
Otwell, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Otwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Otwell's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Otwell
Each reading below is measured for Otwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOtwell 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
MeasuredOtwell 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 Otwell is in
Otwell sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Otwell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Otwell
Every plant below cleared Otwell'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 Otwell?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Otwell
Survey cells within 31 miles of Otwell checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 118 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Otwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Otwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELMER BUCHTA TRUCKING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CIRCLE A FOOD MART 110Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Tobacco Road 222Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SOLAR SOURCES INC SHAMROCK PREPARATION FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 3.0 mi
- MIDWESTERN GAS TRANSMISSION COMPANY STABrownfields · 4.3 mi
- DUBOIS COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENT TANK 4Underground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- LECHNERS EXCAVATING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- EAST FORK STATE FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- DAVIESS MARTIN COUNTY RURAL TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- BOBS AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- TERWISKE GLASS AND BODY INCBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- LEINENBACH TIRE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Otwell'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 Otwell.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Otwell
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Otwell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Otwell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Otwell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Otwell — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (71 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Otwell
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 Otwell average
Your land is one point inside Otwell
Everything above resolves to Otwell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Otwell Average
Otwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Otwell
- ●One soil character for all of Otwell
- ●Frost dates read at Otwell's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Otwell's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Otwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Otwell, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Otwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Otwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Otwell average
How we know this about Otwell
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 Otwell’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 Otwell
When does frost risk typically end in Otwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Otwell typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Otwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Otwell typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Otwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Otwell sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 22, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Otwell?
The federal record around Otwell shows 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Otwell?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Otwell's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Otwell'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 Otwell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Otwell's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,142 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Otwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Otwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 5 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Otwell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Otwell's boundary and the 1,142 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 Otwell's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Otwell 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 Otwell's 1,142 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Otwell's 1,142 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Otwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,142 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 Otwell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaOtwell sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.