Dayton, Kentucky, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Dayton, 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 Dayton 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 Dayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dayton — the short answer
Dayton, Kentucky: USDA zone 6b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 831 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 831 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 Dayton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dayton's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dayton
Each reading below is measured for Dayton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDayton runs about 223 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
MeasuredDayton 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 Dayton is in
Dayton sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dayton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Campbell County.
What Grows in Dayton
Every plant below cleared Dayton's own zone 6b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Kentucky profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dayton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Dayton
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Dayton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dayton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dayton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RADAC CORPToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- City Of DaytonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Fowler Standard StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- The Marina at Manhattan HarbourUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Csx Transportation IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Lincoln Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Hundal PetroleumUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Skips Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- The Perry & Derrick CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GREATER CINCINNATI WATER WORKSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- VALUE OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CIN GAS & ELECTIC CO EASTEN AVE GAS PLNTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dayton'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 Dayton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dayton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dayton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dayton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dayton — Superfund (49 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (237 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Dayton
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 Dayton average
Your land is one point inside Dayton
Everything above resolves to Dayton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 831 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 Dayton Average
Dayton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dayton
- ●One soil character for all of Dayton
- ●Frost dates read at Dayton's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dayton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dayton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dayton, Kentucky — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dayton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dayton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dayton average
How we know this about Dayton
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 Dayton’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 Dayton
When does frost risk typically end in Dayton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dayton typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Dayton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dayton typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dayton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dayton sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 27, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dayton?
The federal record around Dayton is a meaningful one — 2,732 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,624), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Dayton?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dayton's scale — its 6b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dayton'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 Dayton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dayton's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 831 acres it covers and 2,732 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dayton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dayton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 10 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,732 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dayton, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dayton's boundary and the 831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dayton's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Daytonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dayton's 831 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Campbell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Campbell County
- The growing challenges every Kentucky grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Kentucky
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Campbell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dayton's 831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dayton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 831 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Dayton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Kentucky
Growing region
Nearby growing guides