Tuscarawas 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.
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.
Tuscarawas County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Tuscarawas County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tuscarawas County — the short answer
Tuscarawas County, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 363K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 363K 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 Tuscarawas County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tuscarawas County's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Tuscarawas County
Across a year, Tuscarawas County accumulates about 2,847 growing degree days above 50°F, about 75 fewer than the middle Ohio county — ahead of 25 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 Tuscarawas County
Across Tuscarawas County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Coshocton, Westmoreland, and Berks are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.1–5.9, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Tuscarawas County
The USDA soil survey maps 55% of Tuscarawas County as well drained — but another 42% drains differently: 27% moderately well drained, 13% somewhat poorly drained.
Coshocton is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Westmoreland (14%) and Berks (12%).
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 Tuscarawas County
Each reading below is measured for Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County runs about pH 5.1–5.9, 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
MeasuredTuscarawas County runs about 203 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
MeasuredTuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County is in
Tuscarawas County sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Tuscarawas County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Tuscarawas County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 203-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 Tuscarawas County?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Tuscarawas County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tuscarawas 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.
- monarch butterfly53 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Tuscarawas County
USGS estimates 27,144 lb of Glyphosate on Tuscarawas County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (19,953 lb) and Acetochlor (11,145 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 Tuscarawas County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Tuscarawas County — 646 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Tuscarawas County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Tuscarawas County
Closest first, across Tuscarawas County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENN-OHIO COAL CO, D.B.A CENTRAL FUEL COMPANY (0679020004)Toxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- NEW PHILADELPHIA CITY PWSPFAS · 1.5 mi
- STREET DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- FIRST CLASS TRANSPORT INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- JOHN COOKSON COMPANYBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- TUSCARAWAS COUNTY COMMISSIONERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SOUTHSIDE BELLSTORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- GLENN GOWINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RECYCLED FIBERIZED PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- NEW PHILADELPHIA CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- CITY OF NEW PHILADELPHIA WATER DUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- K MART #3500Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County.
Sources Checked
across Tuscarawas County
Severity Distribution
across Tuscarawas County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tuscarawas County, two things run higher than the national average across Tuscarawas County — Toxics Release Inventory (63 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County average
Your land is one point inside Tuscarawas County
Everything above resolves to Tuscarawas County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 363K 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 Tuscarawas County Average
Tuscarawas County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tuscarawas County
- ●One soil character for all of Tuscarawas County
- ●Frost dates read at Tuscarawas County's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tuscarawas County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Tuscarawas County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tuscarawas County, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tuscarawas County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tuscarawas County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tuscarawas County average
How we know this about Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Tuscarawas County
When does frost risk typically end in Tuscarawas County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tuscarawas County typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Tuscarawas County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tuscarawas County sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 20, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tuscarawas County?
The federal record around Tuscarawas County runs heavier than most — 646 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (313), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Tuscarawas County's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Tuscarawas County's own scale — its own ~203-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 646 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tuscarawas County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tuscarawas County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Tuscarawas CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 646 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Tuscarawas County's boundary and the 363,269 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tuscarawas County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Tuscarawas County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County — the ~203 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 Tuscarawas County's 363,269 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 646 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 Tuscarawas Countyread your own land →