Poneto, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — 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 Poneto, 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 Poneto 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 Poneto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Poneto — the short answer
Poneto, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 74 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)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 74 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 Poneto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poneto's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poneto
Each reading below is measured for Poneto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPoneto runs about 207 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
MeasuredPoneto 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 Poneto is in
Poneto sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Poneto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wells County.
What Grows in Poneto
Every plant below cleared Poneto's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Poneto?
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 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 Nov 2 — 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 Poneto
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Poneto, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Poneto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poneto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITHS GARAGE & TRUCKING INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CRULLS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- THE ANDERSONS INC. - PONETOBrownfields · 1500 ft
- BRUCE OSBORNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Crop Production Services 546Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- JIMMYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- Helena Chemical CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- MILLER AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Liberty Center ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- SOUTHERN WELLS COMMUNITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- MATALCO LLC - BLUFFTONBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- MATALCO LLC - BLUFFTONToxics Release Inventory · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poneto'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 Poneto.
Total Sites
146
within ~10 miles of Poneto
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poneto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poneto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poneto, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Poneto — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Poneto
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 Poneto average
Your land is one point inside Poneto
Everything above resolves to Poneto as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 74 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 Poneto Average
Poneto Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Poneto
- ●One soil character for all of Poneto
- ●Frost dates read at Poneto's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poneto's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poneto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poneto, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poneto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poneto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poneto average
How we know this about Poneto
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 Poneto’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 Poneto
When does frost risk typically end in Poneto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poneto 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 Poneto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poneto typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Poneto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poneto sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 19, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poneto?
The federal record around Poneto is a meaningful one — 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), 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 Poneto?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Poneto's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poneto'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 Poneto’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Poneto's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 74 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poneto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Poneto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 2 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poneto, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poneto's boundary and the 74 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Poneto's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ponetolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Poneto's 74 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wells County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wells 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 Wells County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poneto's 74 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poneto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 74 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 Poneto-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaPoneto sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides