Wolcottville, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wolcottville, 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 Wolcottville 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 Wolcottville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wolcottville — the short answer
Wolcottville, Indiana: USDA zone 6a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 648 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 648 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 Wolcottville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wolcottville's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wolcottville
Each reading below is measured for Wolcottville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWolcottville runs about 199 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
MeasuredWolcottville 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 Wolcottville is in
Wolcottville sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wolcottville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Noble County.
What Grows in Wolcottville
Every plant below cleared Wolcottville's own zone 6a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Indiana profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wolcottville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Wolcottville
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Wolcottville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wolcottville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wolcottville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDWEST MOLDING, INC.Brownfields · 600 ft
- 7739 - WOLCOTTVILLEBrownfields · 800 ft
- WOLCOTTVILLE TOWN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WOLCOTT MILLS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Lassus Brothers Handy Dandy 35Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HRO FIBERGLASS & PLASTICS INCORPORATEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KENNEDY OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Fidler IncorporatedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BILL & CASEYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- COLLINS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- S & S EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MILLERS SUPER VALUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wolcottville'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 Wolcottville.
Total Sites
328
within ~10 miles of Wolcottville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wolcottville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wolcottville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wolcottville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Wolcottville. 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 Wolcottville
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 Wolcottville average
Your land is one point inside Wolcottville
Everything above resolves to Wolcottville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 648 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 Wolcottville Average
Wolcottville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wolcottville
- ●One soil character for all of Wolcottville
- ●Frost dates read at Wolcottville's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wolcottville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wolcottville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wolcottville, Indiana — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wolcottville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wolcottville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wolcottville average
How we know this about Wolcottville
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 Wolcottville’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 Wolcottville
When does frost risk typically end in Wolcottville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wolcottville typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Wolcottville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wolcottville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wolcottville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wolcottville sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 17, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wolcottville?
The federal record around Wolcottville is a meaningful one — 328 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (172), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Wolcottville?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wolcottville's scale — its 6a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wolcottville'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 Wolcottville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wolcottville's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 648 acres it covers and 328 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wolcottville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wolcottville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 31 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 328 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wolcottville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wolcottville's boundary and the 648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wolcottville's own centroid, the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wolcottvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wolcottville's 648 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Noble County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Noble 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 Noble County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wolcottville's 648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wolcottville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 648 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Wolcottville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Indiana
Wider growing context
What grows across IndianaWolcottville sits outside our named growing regions, so Indiana as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides