Wakarusa, 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 Wakarusa, 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 Wakarusa 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 Wakarusa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wakarusa — the short answer
Wakarusa, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- 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 6a is Wakarusa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wakarusa's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wakarusa
Each reading below is measured for Wakarusa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWakarusa 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
MeasuredWakarusa 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 Wakarusa is in
Wakarusa sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wakarusa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elkhart County.
What Grows in Wakarusa
Every plant below cleared Wakarusa's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wakarusa?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Wakarusa
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Wakarusa, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wakarusa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wakarusa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NAVISTAR INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 500 ft
- NAVISTAR INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 500 ft
- Navistar IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- QUALITY DESIGNSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DWYER INSTRUMENTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- DWYER INSTRUMENTS INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- KEYSTONE RV COMPANYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- NELSONS CATERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HAROLD L HERSHBERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- D AND M AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- TRUEX MOTOR SALESBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NORTH WOOD MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wakarusa'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 Wakarusa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wakarusa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wakarusa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wakarusa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wakarusa — Toxics Release Inventory (127 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Wakarusa
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 Wakarusa average
Your land is one point inside Wakarusa
Everything above resolves to Wakarusa 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 Wakarusa Average
Wakarusa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wakarusa
- ●One soil character for all of Wakarusa
- ●Frost dates read at Wakarusa's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wakarusa's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wakarusa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wakarusa, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wakarusa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wakarusa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wakarusa average
How we know this about Wakarusa
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 Wakarusa’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 Wakarusa
When does frost risk typically end in Wakarusa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wakarusa typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Wakarusa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wakarusa typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wakarusa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wakarusa sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 18, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wakarusa?
The federal record around Wakarusa is a meaningful one — 725 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (342), the nearest Brownfields 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 Wakarusa?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wakarusa's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wakarusa'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 Wakarusa’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wakarusa's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,411 acres it covers and 725 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wakarusa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wakarusa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 1 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 725 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wakarusa, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wakarusa's boundary and the 1,411 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wakarusa's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wakarusalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wakarusa's 1,411 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elkhart County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elkhart 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 Elkhart County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wakarusa's 1,411 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wakarusa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,411 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Wakarusa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaWakarusa sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.