Fostoria, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Fostoria, 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 Fostoria 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 Fostoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fostoria — the short answer
Fostoria, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- 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
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Fostoria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fostoria's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fostoria
Each reading below is measured for Fostoria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFostoria runs about 184 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
MeasuredFostoria 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 Fostoria is in
Fostoria sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fostoria's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tuscola County is mostly Huron/Erie Lake Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fostoria
Every plant below cleared Fostoria's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fostoria?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Fostoria
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fostoria checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 44 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fostoria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fostoria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fostoria GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Wilfred H LeixUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Bobs Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- South of North Lake General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Deerfield Twp Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- VERIZON NORTH INCBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- M & N MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Harold WhiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- MARY T MASHNI INCBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- Mrs Ruth MaberyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Frank LucikUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- His Majestys Care FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fostoria'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 Fostoria.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Fostoria
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fostoria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fostoria
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fostoria, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 69 sites within ~10 miles of Fostoria. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fostoria
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 Fostoria average
Your land is one point inside Fostoria
Everything above resolves to Fostoria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Fostoria Average
Fostoria Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fostoria
- ●One soil character for all of Fostoria
- ●Frost dates read at Fostoria's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fostoria's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fostoria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fostoria, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fostoria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fostoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fostoria average
How we know this about Fostoria
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 Fostoria’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 Fostoria
When does frost risk typically end in Fostoria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fostoria typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Fostoria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fostoria 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 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fostoria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fostoria sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 11, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fostoria?
The federal record around Fostoria shows 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles 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 Fostoria?
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 Fostoria's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fostoria'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 Fostoria’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fostoria's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,564 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fostoria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fostoria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 25 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fostoria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fostoria's boundary and the 2,564 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fostoria sits in the Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fostoria 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 Fostoria's 2,564 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuscola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuscola County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Tuscola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fostoria's 2,564 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fostoria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,564 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Fostoria-wide figureread your own land →
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