Fort Loramie, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Fort Loramie, 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 Fort Loramie 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 Fort Loramie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fort Loramie — the short answer
Fort Loramie, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 660 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 660 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 Fort Loramie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Loramie's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Loramie
Each reading below is measured for Fort Loramie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Loramie runs about 208 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
MeasuredFort Loramie 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 Fort Loramie is in
Fort Loramie sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Loramie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Fort Loramie
Every plant below cleared Fort Loramie's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Loramie?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Fort Loramie
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fort Loramie checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Loramie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Loramie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WAGNERS VILLAGE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ODOT NEWPORT OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WAYNE TRAIL TOOL & DIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FORT LORAMIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CASEY'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ELITE ENCLOSURE COMPANY (0575010235)Brownfields · 2300 ft
- FORT LORAMIE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2500 ft
- TOOLING TECHNOLOGYToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- CROWN EQUIPMENT CORP - FORT LORAMIEBrownfields · 2600 ft
- ERNST BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #5810Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- EDWARDS MACHINE SERVICE INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Loramie'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 Fort Loramie.
Total Sites
173
within ~10 miles of Fort Loramie
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
21 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Loramie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Loramie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Loramie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Loramie — Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites) and Nitrate (46 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fort Loramie
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 Fort Loramie average
Your land is one point inside Fort Loramie
Everything above resolves to Fort Loramie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 660 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 Fort Loramie Average
Fort Loramie Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fort Loramie
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Loramie
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Loramie's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Loramie's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Loramie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Loramie, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Loramie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Loramie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Loramie average
How we know this about Fort Loramie
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 Fort Loramie’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 Fort Loramie
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Loramie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Loramie typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Fort Loramie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Loramie typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Loramie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Loramie sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Loramie?
The federal record around Fort Loramie shows 173 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Loramie?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Loramie's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Loramie'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 Fort Loramie’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Loramie's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 660 acres it covers and 173 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Loramie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Loramie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 173 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Loramie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Loramie's boundary and the 660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Loramie's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fort Loramie 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 Fort Loramie's 660 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Loramie's 660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Loramie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Fort Loramie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioFort Loramie sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides