Shoals, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Shoals, 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 Shoals 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 Shoals — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shoals — the short answer
Shoals, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- 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 Shoals's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shoals's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shoals
Each reading below is measured for Shoals itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShoals runs about 201 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
MeasuredShoals 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 Shoals is in
Shoals sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shoals's own centroid rather than borrowed from Martin County.
What Grows in Shoals
Every plant below cleared Shoals's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shoals?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Shoals
Survey cells within 31 miles of Shoals checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 100 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shoals
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shoals. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAY C FOOD STORE #52Brownfields · 600 ft
- EARL BOYD JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RJS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BEDFORD TRUCKING SHELBY TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- IN5251004 MARTIN 00250 PRODUCTION WELL 3Nitrate · 2000 ft
- HAAS OIL INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JONES PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SITE BRIDGE REPLACE CONTR B17867Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SHOALS WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BILL DOBSON FORD L M INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- WALAUD DISPCOMBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SWIFT TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shoals'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 Shoals.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Shoals
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shoals
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shoals
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shoals, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Shoals — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (36 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Shoals
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 Shoals average
Your land is one point inside Shoals
Everything above resolves to Shoals 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 Shoals Average
Shoals Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Shoals
- ●One soil character for all of Shoals
- ●Frost dates read at Shoals's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shoals's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shoals
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shoals, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shoals averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shoals — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shoals average
How we know this about Shoals
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 Shoals’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 Shoals
When does frost risk typically end in Shoals?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shoals typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Shoals?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shoals typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shoals?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shoals sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 12, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shoals?
The federal record around Shoals is a meaningful one — 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles 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 Shoals?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shoals's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shoals'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 Shoals’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shoals's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,167 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shoals's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shoals's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 26 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shoals, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shoals's boundary and the 1,167 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shoals's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Shoals 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 Shoals's 1,167 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Martin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Martin 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 Martin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shoals's 1,167 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shoals you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,167 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Shoals-wide figureread your own land →