Delta, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Delta, 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 Delta 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 Delta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Delta — the short answer
Delta, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Delta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Delta's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Delta
Each reading below is measured for Delta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDelta runs about 201 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
MeasuredDelta 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 Delta is in
Delta sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Delta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Delta
Every plant below cleared Delta's own zone 6a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Delta?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. 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 Delta
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from Delta, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Delta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Delta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STONE TRANSPORTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- STONE TRANSPORT DELTA TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MEMORIAL HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- D & C AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DELTA KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALLTEL OHIO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SCHULTZ AUTOMOTIVE REPAIRBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- EAGLE-PICHER WASTE DISPOSAL AREASSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- FULTON COUNTY PROCESSING LTD A HEIDTMAN STEEL COToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- DELTA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BLUESCOPE RECYCLING AND MATERIALS LLCSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- SPEEDWAY 9690Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Delta'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 Delta.
Total Sites
226
within ~10 miles of Delta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Delta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Delta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Delta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Delta — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (19 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.
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 Delta
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 Delta average
Your land is one point inside Delta
Everything above resolves to Delta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Delta Average
Delta Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Delta
- ●One soil character for all of Delta
- ●Frost dates read at Delta's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Delta's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Delta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Delta, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Delta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Delta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Delta average
How we know this about Delta
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 Delta’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 Delta
When does frost risk typically end in Delta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Delta typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Delta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Delta 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Delta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Delta sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 17, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Delta?
The federal record around Delta is a meaningful one — 226 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (110), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Delta?
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 Delta's scale — its 6a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Delta'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 Delta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Delta's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,559 acres it covers and 226 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Delta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Delta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 31 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 226 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Delta, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Delta's boundary and the 2,559 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Delta's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Deltalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Delta's 2,559 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Delta's 2,559 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Delta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,559 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Delta-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioDelta sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides