Winamac, Indiana, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Winamac, 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 Winamac 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 Winamac — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winamac — the short answer
Winamac, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 871 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 871 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 Winamac's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winamac's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winamac
Each reading below is measured for Winamac itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinamac runs about 196 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
MeasuredWinamac 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 Winamac is in
Winamac sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Winamac's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pulaski County is mostly Central Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Winamac
Every plant below cleared Winamac's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winamac?
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 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 25 — 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 Winamac
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Winamac, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Winamac
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winamac. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STANDARD AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 400 ft
- United Telephone Company Indiana DBA Century Link Winamac CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SCHULTZ STANDARD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SUPERIOR AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PHILIP LEMERONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HEINOLD OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- LAWRENCE TRUSTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Howards MarathonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PULASKI COUNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FULTON MARSHALL FARM BUREAU COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GOBLE OLDSMOBLE PONTIAC INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DAIRY BARN INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winamac'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 Winamac.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Winamac
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winamac
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winamac
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winamac, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winamac — Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (71 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Winamac
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 Winamac average
Your land is one point inside Winamac
Everything above resolves to Winamac as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 871 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 Winamac Average
Winamac Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Winamac
- ●One soil character for all of Winamac
- ●Frost dates read at Winamac's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winamac's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winamac
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winamac, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winamac averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winamac — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winamac average
How we know this about Winamac
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 Winamac’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 Winamac
When does frost risk typically end in Winamac?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winamac 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 Winamac?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winamac typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winamac?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winamac sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winamac?
The federal record around Winamac shows 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Winamac?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winamac's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winamac'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 Winamac’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Winamac's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 871 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winamac's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winamac's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winamac, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winamac's boundary and the 871 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Winamac sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Winamaclydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Winamac's 871 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pulaski County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pulaski 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 Pulaski County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winamac's 871 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winamac you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 871 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 Winamac-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaWinamac sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides