Pittsburg, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pittsburg, 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 Pittsburg 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 Pittsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pittsburg — the short answer
Pittsburg, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 169 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 169 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 Pittsburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pittsburg's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pittsburg
Each reading below is measured for Pittsburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPittsburg 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
MeasuredPittsburg 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 Pittsburg is in
Pittsburg sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pittsburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carroll County.
What Grows in Pittsburg
Every plant below cleared Pittsburg'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 Pittsburg?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Pittsburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Pittsburg, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pittsburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pittsburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US Aggregates DBA Delphi LimestoneUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- US AGGREGATES INCORPORATED DELPHI LIMESTONEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GLOBE VALVE DIV OF GERBER PLUMBING FIXTURES CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- NEXT DAY CONTAINERToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- Globe Valve CorporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DELPHI LIMESTONE INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- INDUSTRIAL CONTAINER SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- IW-42 DELPHI, IND.Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- DICK KRIEG GMCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Carroll County Rural Electric Membership CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CM KERLIN ELEVATOR INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NORFOLK SOUTHERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pittsburg'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 Pittsburg.
Total Sites
119
within ~10 miles of Pittsburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pittsburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pittsburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pittsburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pittsburg — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (83 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 Pittsburg
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 Pittsburg average
Your land is one point inside Pittsburg
Everything above resolves to Pittsburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 169 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 Pittsburg Average
Pittsburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pittsburg
- ●One soil character for all of Pittsburg
- ●Frost dates read at Pittsburg's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pittsburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pittsburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pittsburg, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pittsburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pittsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pittsburg average
How we know this about Pittsburg
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 Pittsburg’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 Pittsburg
When does frost risk typically end in Pittsburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pittsburg typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Pittsburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pittsburg typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pittsburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pittsburg sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 15, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pittsburg?
The federal record around Pittsburg shows 119 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Pittsburg?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pittsburg's scale — its 6a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pittsburg'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 Pittsburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pittsburg's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 169 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pittsburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pittsburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 29 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pittsburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pittsburg's boundary and the 169 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pittsburg's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pittsburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pittsburg's 169 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pittsburg's 169 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pittsburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 169 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Pittsburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaPittsburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.