Vincennes, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Vincennes, 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 Vincennes 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 Vincennes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vincennes — the short answer
Vincennes, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- 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
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Vincennes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vincennes's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vincennes
Each reading below is measured for Vincennes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVincennes runs about 218 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
MeasuredVincennes 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 Vincennes is in
Vincennes sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vincennes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Vincennes
Every plant below cleared Vincennes's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vincennes?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Vincennes
Survey cells within 31 miles of Vincennes checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 139 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vincennes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vincennes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CANTWELL SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Hucks 135Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GENES 76Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SWIFTY OIL 192Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FIELDS CLEANERSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- JAY C FOOD STORE #84Brownfields · 2300 ft
- Walters Ron & MarleneUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SNIDERS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 6880Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- BUS BARN MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CVS Pharmacy 6880Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HUCKS FOOD STORE 290Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vincennes'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 Vincennes.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vincennes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vincennes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vincennes, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vincennes — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (146 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Vincennes
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 Vincennes average
Your land is one point inside Vincennes
Everything above resolves to Vincennes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 Vincennes Average
Vincennes Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vincennes
- ●One soil character for all of Vincennes
- ●Frost dates read at Vincennes's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vincennes's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vincennes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vincennes, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vincennes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vincennes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vincennes average
How we know this about Vincennes
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Vincennes’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Vincennes
When does frost risk typically end in Vincennes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vincennes typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Vincennes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vincennes 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 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vincennes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vincennes sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 22, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vincennes?
The federal record around Vincennes is a meaningful one — 228 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (146), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Vincennes?
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 Vincennes's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vincennes'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 Vincennes’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vincennes's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,771 acres it covers and 228 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vincennes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vincennes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 5 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 228 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vincennes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vincennes's boundary and the 4,771 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vincennes's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Vincennes 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 Vincennes's 4,771 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vincennes's 4,771 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vincennes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,771 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Vincennes-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaVincennes sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides