Alvordton, Ohio, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Alvordton, 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 Alvordton 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 Alvordton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alvordton — the short answer
Alvordton, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 161 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 161 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 Alvordton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alvordton's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alvordton
Each reading below is measured for Alvordton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlvordton runs about 193 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
MeasuredAlvordton 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 Alvordton is in
Alvordton sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alvordton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Williams County.
What Grows in Alvordton
Every plant below cleared Alvordton's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alvordton?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Alvordton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Alvordton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 41 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alvordton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alvordton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KUNEY'S MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WM-103 OHNitrate · 2.1 mi
- WM-85-N21 OHNitrate · 2.7 mi
- KUNKLE CARRYOUT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- PIONEER INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS LLCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- Hillsdale County Road CommissionUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- TIFFIN RIVER SERVICE PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Kunkle Maintenance BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- INDIAN MEADOW SERVICE PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- SUNOCO NO 0443-3686Brownfields · 4.1 mi
- SUNOCO STATION #0759-1357 (7749)Brownfields · 4.1 mi
- INDIAN MEADOW SERVICE PLAZABrownfields · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alvordton'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 Alvordton.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of Alvordton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alvordton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alvordton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alvordton, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Alvordton. 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 Alvordton
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 Alvordton average
Your land is one point inside Alvordton
Everything above resolves to Alvordton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 161 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 Alvordton Average
Alvordton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Alvordton
- ●One soil character for all of Alvordton
- ●Frost dates read at Alvordton's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alvordton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alvordton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alvordton, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alvordton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alvordton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alvordton average
How we know this about Alvordton
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 Alvordton’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 Alvordton
When does frost risk typically end in Alvordton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alvordton typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Alvordton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alvordton typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alvordton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alvordton sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 12, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alvordton?
The federal record around Alvordton shows 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Alvordton?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alvordton's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alvordton'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 Alvordton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Alvordton's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 161 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alvordton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alvordton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 26 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alvordton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alvordton's boundary and the 161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alvordton's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Alvordton 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 Alvordton's 161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williams County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Williams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alvordton's 161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alvordton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 161 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 Alvordton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioAlvordton sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides