Wabash, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wabash, 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 Wabash 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 Wabash — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wabash — the short answer
Wabash, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Wabash's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wabash's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wabash
Each reading below is measured for Wabash itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWabash runs about 194 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
MeasuredWabash 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 Wabash is in
Wabash sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wabash's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wabash County.
What Grows in Wabash
Every plant below cleared Wabash's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wabash?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Wabash
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Wabash, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wabash
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wabash. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SQUEAKY CLEANUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- FORMER CLARK STORE 1440Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- VILLAGE PANTRY 413Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CVS PHARMACY 6513Brownfields · 750 ft
- HONEYCUTT UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JOHN C JUSTICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- WABASH MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Swingers 4 Way ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Shell Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Mexico MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Hoefer Fred AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HOEFER FRED AMOCOBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wabash'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 Wabash.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of Wabash
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wabash
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wabash
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wabash, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Wabash. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Wabash
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 Wabash average
Your land is one point inside Wabash
Everything above resolves to Wabash as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Wabash Average
Wabash Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wabash
- ●One soil character for all of Wabash
- ●Frost dates read at Wabash's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wabash's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wabash
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wabash, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wabash averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wabash — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wabash average
How we know this about Wabash
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 Wabash’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 Wabash
When does frost risk typically end in Wabash?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wabash typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Wabash?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wabash typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wabash?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wabash sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 13, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wabash?
The federal record around Wabash is a meaningful one — 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), 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 Wabash?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wabash's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wabash'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 Wabash’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wabash's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,173 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wabash's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wabash's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 27 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wabash, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wabash's boundary and the 6,173 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wabash's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wabashlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wabash's 6,173 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wabash County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wabash 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 Wabash County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wabash's 6,173 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wabash you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,173 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 Wabash-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaWabash sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides