Plainville, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Plainville, 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 Plainville 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 Plainville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Plainville — the short answer
Plainville, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 221 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 221 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 Plainville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plainville's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plainville
Each reading below is measured for Plainville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlainville runs about 219 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
MeasuredPlainville 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 Plainville is in
Plainville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Plainville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Daviess County.
What Grows in Plainville
Every plant below cleared Plainville's own zone 6b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plainville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 5 — 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 Plainville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Plainville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 119 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Plainville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plainville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Plainville Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DAVIESS COUNTY RURAL WATERPFAS · 3.9 mi
- Elnora Central FieldUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- CORN PRO INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 5.1 mi
- CORN PRO INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- DUKE ENERGY INDIANA EDWARDSPORT IGCCToxics Release Inventory · 5.2 mi
- DUKE ENERGY INDIANA EDWARDSPORT IGCCBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- VCNA PRAIRIE YARD P015Toxics Release Inventory · 5.4 mi
- CARNAHAN GRAIN INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- NORTH KNOX TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Duke Energy IGCCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- AT & T RADIO TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plainville'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 Plainville.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Plainville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plainville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plainville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plainville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Plainville — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Plainville
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 Plainville average
Your land is one point inside Plainville
Everything above resolves to Plainville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 221 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 Plainville Average
Plainville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Plainville
- ●One soil character for all of Plainville
- ●Frost dates read at Plainville's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plainville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plainville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plainville, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plainville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plainville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plainville average
How we know this about Plainville
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 Plainville’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 Plainville
When does frost risk typically end in Plainville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plainville 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 Plainville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plainville 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 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plainville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plainville sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 22, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plainville?
The federal record around Plainville shows 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), 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 Plainville?
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 Plainville's scale — its 6b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plainville'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 Plainville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Plainville's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 221 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plainville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plainville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 5 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plainville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plainville's boundary and the 221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plainville's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Plainville 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 Plainville's 221 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Daviess 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 Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plainville's 221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plainville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 221 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 Plainville-wide figureread your own land →