Straughn, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Straughn, 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 Straughn 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 Straughn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Straughn — the short answer
Straughn, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 90 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 90 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 Straughn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Straughn's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Straughn
Each reading below is measured for Straughn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStraughn runs about 195 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredStraughn 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 Straughn is in
Straughn sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Straughn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henry County.
What Grows in Straughn
Every plant below cleared Straughn's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Straughn?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Straughn
Survey cells within 31 miles of Straughn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 57 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Straughn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Straughn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US 40 AUTOBODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- B & R GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Crop Production Services 579Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- New Lisbon Travel CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- NSND By Design LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- STEVE SLOCOMBUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MONGERS STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- HNY 22Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- CHARLES ATKINSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- KEITH BECKNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- TRI HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- JS SWEET COMPANY INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Straughn'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 Straughn.
Total Sites
241
within ~10 miles of Straughn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Straughn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Straughn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Straughn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Straughn — Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (160 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Straughn
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 Straughn average
Your land is one point inside Straughn
Everything above resolves to Straughn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 90 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 Straughn Average
Straughn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Straughn
- ●One soil character for all of Straughn
- ●Frost dates read at Straughn's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Straughn's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Straughn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Straughn, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Straughn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Straughn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Straughn average
How we know this about Straughn
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 Straughn’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 Straughn
When does frost risk typically end in Straughn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Straughn typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Straughn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Straughn typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Straughn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Straughn sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 10, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Straughn?
The federal record around Straughn is a meaningful one — 241 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (160), 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 Straughn?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Straughn's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Straughn'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 Straughn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Straughn's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 90 acres it covers and 241 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Straughn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Straughn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 24 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 241 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Straughn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Straughn's boundary and the 90 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Straughn's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Straughn 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 Straughn's 90 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Straughn's 90 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Straughn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 90 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 Straughn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaStraughn sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides