Findlay, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Findlay, 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 Findlay 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 Findlay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Findlay — the short answer
Findlay, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 13K 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 6b is Findlay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Findlay's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Findlay
Each reading below is measured for Findlay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFindlay runs about 212 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
MeasuredFindlay 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 Findlay is in
Findlay sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Findlay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hancock County.
What Grows in Findlay
Every plant below cleared Findlay's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Findlay?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Findlay
Survey cells within 31 miles of Findlay checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Findlay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Findlay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLARK STORE NO 927Brownfields · 850 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10641Brownfields · 950 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #19784Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5813Brownfields · 1300 ft
- INTERNATIONAL FUEL SYSTEMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JDR EXCAVATINGBrownfields · 1600 ft
- FINDLAY INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1700 ft
- HIGHWAY OIL #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JOHN SAUSSER STEEL CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WHIRLPOOL OUTSIDE WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- STERLING FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BOTKIN BODY & REPAIR COBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Findlay'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 Findlay.
Total Sites
355
within ~10 miles of Findlay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Findlay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Findlay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Findlay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Findlay — Toxics Release Inventory (34 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Findlay
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 Findlay average
Your land is one point inside Findlay
Everything above resolves to Findlay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 city 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 Findlay Average
Findlay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Findlay
- ●One soil character for all of Findlay
- ●Frost dates read at Findlay's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Findlay's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Findlay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Findlay, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Findlay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Findlay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Findlay average
How we know this about Findlay
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Findlay’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Findlay
When does frost risk typically end in Findlay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Findlay typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Findlay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Findlay typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Findlay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Findlay sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 24, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Findlay?
The federal record around Findlay is a meaningful one — 355 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Findlay?
From about Oct 8 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Findlay's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Findlay'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 Findlay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Findlay's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,583 acres it covers and 355 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Findlay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Findlay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 7 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 355 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Findlay, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Findlay's boundary and the 12,583 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Findlay's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Findlay checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Findlay's 12,583 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hancock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hancock 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 Hancock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Findlay's 12,583 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Findlay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,583 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Findlay-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioFindlay sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides