Saline City, 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 Saline City, 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 Saline City 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 Saline City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saline City — the short answer
Saline City, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 94 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- 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
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 94 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 Saline City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saline City's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saline City
Each reading below is measured for Saline City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaline City runs about 213 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
MeasuredSaline City 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 Saline City is in
Saline City sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Saline City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Saline City
Every plant below cleared Saline City's own zone 6a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saline City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Saline City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Saline City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 102 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Saline City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saline City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Country JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Thatchers RetreatUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- IN DOT Ashboro UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- INDOT ASHBORO UNITBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CLAY COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BRICKCRAFT, LLC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- Sphalerite Occurrence Z83Mining · 2.4 mi
- NAWQA AG WELL FA13 NEAR SALINE CITY, INNitrate · 2.9 mi
- NAWQA AG WELL GL8 NEAR CENTER POINT, INNitrate · 3.5 mi
- LABERTEAUXUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- WC-60 CENTER POINT, IND.Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- Sphalerite OccurrenceMining · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saline City'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 Saline City.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of Saline City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saline City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saline City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saline City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Saline City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Saline City
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 Saline City average
Your land is one point inside Saline City
Everything above resolves to Saline City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 94 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 Saline City Average
Saline City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Saline City
- ●One soil character for all of Saline City
- ●Frost dates read at Saline City's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saline City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saline City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saline City, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saline City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saline City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saline City average
How we know this about Saline City
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 Saline City’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 Saline City
When does frost risk typically end in Saline City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saline City typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Saline City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saline City 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 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saline City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saline City sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 19, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saline City?
The federal record around Saline City shows 113 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Saline City?
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 Saline City's scale — its 6a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saline City'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 Saline City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Saline City's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 94 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saline City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saline City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 2 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saline City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saline City's boundary and the 94 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Saline City's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Saline City 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 Saline City's 94 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saline City's 94 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saline City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 94 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Saline City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaSaline City sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides