Choctaw Lake, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Choctaw Lake, 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 Choctaw Lake 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 Choctaw Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Choctaw Lake — the short answer
Choctaw Lake, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 664 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- 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
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 664 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 Choctaw Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Choctaw Lake's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Choctaw Lake
Each reading below is measured for Choctaw Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChoctaw Lake runs about 204 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
MeasuredChoctaw Lake 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 Choctaw Lake is in
Choctaw Lake sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Choctaw Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Choctaw Lake
Every plant below cleared Choctaw Lake's own zone 6a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Choctaw Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Choctaw Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Choctaw Lake, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Choctaw Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Choctaw Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKESIDE PLAZA MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CLASSICS BY ELITE INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL BCI&IBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- OHIO PEACE OFFICER TRAINING ACADEMYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- MADISON CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- ORLETON FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- M-4 OHNitrate · 4.3 mi
- MADISON CO ENGINEERBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- TOSCO MARKETING CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- MADISON CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- PEACE OFFICER TRAINING FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- BP OIL CO. #08161Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Choctaw Lake'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 Choctaw Lake.
Total Sites
140
within ~10 miles of Choctaw Lake
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Choctaw Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Choctaw Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Choctaw Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Choctaw Lake — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Choctaw Lake
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 Choctaw Lake average
Your land is one point inside Choctaw Lake
Everything above resolves to Choctaw Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 664 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 Choctaw Lake Average
Choctaw Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Choctaw Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Choctaw Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Choctaw Lake's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Choctaw Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Choctaw Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Choctaw Lake, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Choctaw Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Choctaw Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Choctaw Lake average
How we know this about Choctaw Lake
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 Choctaw Lake’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 Choctaw Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Choctaw Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Choctaw Lake typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Choctaw Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Choctaw Lake 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 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Choctaw Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Choctaw Lake sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 17, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Choctaw Lake?
The federal record around Choctaw Lake shows 140 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Choctaw Lake?
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 Choctaw Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Choctaw Lake'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 Choctaw Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Choctaw Lake's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 664 acres it covers and 140 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Choctaw Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Choctaw Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 31 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 140 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Choctaw Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Choctaw Lake's boundary and the 664 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Choctaw Lake's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Choctaw Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Choctaw Lake's 664 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Choctaw Lake's 664 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Choctaw Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 664 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Choctaw Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioChoctaw Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides