Stark County, in Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Stark County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Stark 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 Stark County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stark County — the short answer
Stark County, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 368K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 368K 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 6b is Stark County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stark County's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Stark County
Across a year, Stark County accumulates about 2,781 growing degree days above 50°F, about 141 fewer than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 19 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 Stark County
Across Stark County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Canfield, Chili, and Wooster are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Stark County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Stark County as well drained — but another 53% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Canfield is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Chili (17%) and Wooster (9%).
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 Stark County
Each reading below is measured for Stark 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 Stark County are well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Stark County runs about pH 5.0–6.3, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredStark County 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
MeasuredStark County 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 Stark County is in
Stark County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Erie Drift Plain (77%) and Western Allegheny Plateau (23%). 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 Stark County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Stark County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 218-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 Stark County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Stark County
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Stark County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle5 documented records
- monarch butterfly175 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Stark County
USGS estimates 45,402 lb of Glyphosate on Stark County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (16,199 lb) and Metolachlor-s (14,647 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 Stark County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Stark County — 1,577 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 19 Superfund sites. 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 Stark 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 Stark County
Closest first, across Stark County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILLIAM P. MARINOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AP 1860Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- UNITED SALES COMPANYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CLARK STORE NO 1860Brownfields · 1900 ft
- MCQUEEN SIGN & LIGHTING INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- GRODHAUS AND YOUNG INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Giant # 429Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- STANDARD PRINTING COMPANY OF CANTONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- DAN SLANE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NIELSEN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KEMPTHORN BUICK INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BONDED #1125Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stark 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 Stark County.
Sources Checked
across Stark County
Severity Distribution
across Stark County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stark County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 155 sites across Stark County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Stark 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 Stark County average
Your land is one point inside Stark County
Everything above resolves to Stark County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 368K 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 Stark County Average
Stark County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Stark County
- ●One soil character for all of Stark County
- ●Frost dates read at Stark County's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stark County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Stark County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stark County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stark County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stark County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stark County average
How we know this about Stark 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 Stark County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Stark County
When does frost risk typically end in Stark County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stark County typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Stark County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stark County sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 28, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stark County?
The federal record around Stark County is a meaningful one — 1,577 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (844), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Stark County's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stark 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 Stark County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Stark County's own scale — its own ~218-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,577 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stark County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stark County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Stark CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,577 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Stark County's boundary and the 367,961 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Stark County spans, Erie Drift Plain the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Stark County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Stark 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 Stark County — the ~218 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 Stark County's 367,961 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,577 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 Stark Countyread your own land →