Cherry Fork, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cherry Fork, 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 Cherry Fork 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 Cherry Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cherry Fork — the short answer
Cherry Fork, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 193 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 193 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 Cherry Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cherry Fork's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cherry Fork
Each reading below is measured for Cherry Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCherry Fork runs about 218 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
MeasuredCherry Fork 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 Cherry Fork is in
Cherry Fork sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cherry Fork's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Adams County is mostly Interior Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cherry Fork
Every plant below cleared Cherry Fork's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cherry Fork?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Cherry Fork
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cherry Fork checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 48 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cherry Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cherry Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S & L CORNER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HUGHES FEED & FARMS SUPPLIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- GLASSCOCK SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- B & W AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MACA PLASTICSBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- ADAMS COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- 1ST STOP INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- CITY GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- OHIO POWER SEAMAN SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- MARATHON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5514Brownfields · 4.0 mi
- WEASTEC INCToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cherry Fork'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 Cherry Fork.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Cherry Fork
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cherry Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cherry Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cherry Fork, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cherry Fork — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (58 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cherry Fork
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 Cherry Fork average
Your land is one point inside Cherry Fork
Everything above resolves to Cherry Fork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 193 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 Cherry Fork Average
Cherry Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Cherry Fork
- ●One soil character for all of Cherry Fork
- ●Frost dates read at Cherry Fork's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cherry Fork's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cherry Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cherry Fork, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cherry Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cherry Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cherry Fork average
How we know this about Cherry Fork
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 Cherry Fork’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 Cherry Fork
When does frost risk typically end in Cherry Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Fork typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Cherry Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cherry Fork typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cherry Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cherry Fork sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 24, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cherry Fork?
The federal record around Cherry Fork is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Cherry Fork?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cherry Fork's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cherry Fork'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 Cherry Fork’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cherry Fork's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 193 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cherry Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cherry Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 7 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cherry Fork, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cherry Fork's boundary and the 193 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cherry Fork sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cherry Fork 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 Cherry Fork's 193 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cherry Fork's 193 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cherry Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 193 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cherry Fork-wide figureread your own land →
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