Morrow County, in Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Morrow County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Morrow County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Morrow County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Morrow County — the short answer
Morrow County, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 260K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 260K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Morrow County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morrow County's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Morrow County
Across a year, Morrow County accumulates about 2,704 growing degree days above 50°F, about 218 fewer than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 12 of Ohio’s 88 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Morrow County
Across Morrow County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Centerburg, Bennington, and Blount are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.4, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
36%
Hydric soils
14%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Morrow County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Morrow County as moderately well drained — but another 58% drains differently: 31% somewhat poorly drained, 13% well drained.
Centerburg is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Bennington (14%) and Blount (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Morrow County
Each reading below is measured for Morrow County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Morrow County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Morrow County runs about pH 5.9–6.4, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMorrow County runs about 198 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
MeasuredMorrow County 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 Morrow County is in
Morrow County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Erie Drift Plain (54%) and Eastern Corn Belt Plains (46%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Morrow County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Morrow County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 198-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile.
Is it too late to plant in Morrow County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Morrow County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Morrow County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Morrow County
USGS estimates 68,753 lb of Glyphosate on Morrow County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (38,513 lb) and Acetochlor (24,126 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Morrow County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Morrow County — 118 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Morrow County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Morrow County
Closest first, across Morrow County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ODNR MT GILEAD STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MCCREARYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- MT. GILEAD BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CERTIFIED GAS STATION 208Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. #208Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MORROW COUNTY COURT HOUSE MERCURYSuperfund · 2.2 mi
- CENTURYLINKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MORROW COUNTY BOARD OF MR/DDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- ODOT MORROW COUNTYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- FORMER MARATHON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BP OIL SITE 07301Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- THE TOWN PUMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morrow County'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 Morrow County.
Total Sites
118
across Morrow County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Morrow County
Severity Distribution
across Morrow County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morrow County, two things run higher than the national average across Morrow County — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Morrow County
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 Morrow County average
Your land is one point inside Morrow County
Everything above resolves to Morrow County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 260K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Morrow County Average
Morrow County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Morrow County
- ●One soil character for all of Morrow County
- ●Frost dates read at Morrow County's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morrow County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Morrow County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morrow County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morrow County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morrow County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morrow County average
How we know this about Morrow County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Morrow County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Morrow County
When does frost risk typically end in Morrow County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morrow County typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Morrow County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morrow County sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 16, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morrow County?
The federal record around Morrow County is a meaningful one — 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Morrow County's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morrow County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Ohio's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Morrow County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Morrow County's own scale — its own ~198-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 118 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morrow County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morrow County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Morrow CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 118 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Morrow County's boundary and the 259,925 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Morrow County spans, Erie Drift Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Morrow County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Morrow County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Morrow County — the ~198 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morrow County's 259,925 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 118 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Morrow Countyread your own land →