Waldron, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Waldron, 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 Waldron 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 Waldron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waldron — the short answer
Waldron, Indiana: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 804 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 804 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 Waldron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waldron's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waldron
Each reading below is measured for Waldron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaldron runs about 212 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
MeasuredWaldron 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 Waldron is in
Waldron sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waldron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Waldron
Every plant below cleared Waldron's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waldron?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Waldron
Survey cells within 31 miles of Waldron 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 Waldron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waldron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Waldron Auto CareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HERBERT ADKINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AZALEA GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Loves Travel Shop 391Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- American Pride Fuel Group IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Pardue Brothers Service IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- MAIN POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- CHARLIES CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- DAVE O'MARA CONTRACTOR INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.6 mi
- MAHIN GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- STUCKEY 234Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 COMPANY 015040Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waldron'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 Waldron.
Total Sites
200
within ~10 miles of Waldron
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waldron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waldron
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waldron, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Waldron — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and Superfund (4 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 Waldron
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 Waldron average
Your land is one point inside Waldron
Everything above resolves to Waldron as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 804 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 Waldron Average
Waldron Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Waldron
- ●One soil character for all of Waldron
- ●Frost dates read at Waldron's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waldron's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waldron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waldron, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waldron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waldron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waldron average
How we know this about Waldron
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 Waldron’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 Waldron
When does frost risk typically end in Waldron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waldron typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Waldron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waldron typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waldron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waldron sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waldron?
The federal record around Waldron is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Waldron?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waldron's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waldron'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 Waldron’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Waldron's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 804 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waldron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waldron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 2 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waldron, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waldron's boundary and the 804 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waldron's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Waldron 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 Waldron's 804 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waldron's 804 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waldron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 804 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Waldron-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaWaldron sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides