Fort McKinley, 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.
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 Fort McKinley, 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 McKinley 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 McKinley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort McKinley — the short answer
Fort McKinley, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 854 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 854 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 Fort McKinley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort McKinley's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort McKinley
Each reading below is measured for Fort McKinley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort McKinley 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
MeasuredFort McKinley 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 Fort McKinley is in
Fort McKinley sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort McKinley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Fort McKinley
Every plant below cleared Fort McKinley's own zone 6b and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort McKinley?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Fort McKinley
Spotted lanternfly documented 21 miles from Fort McKinley, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort McKinley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort McKinley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STARFIRE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- QUICK MART #20315Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KROGER FUEL CENTER 836Brownfields · 1700 ft
- KROGER CO FUEL CENTER #836Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #3687Brownfields · 2200 ft
- JLS #253 JIFFY LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DAYTON QUALITY STARTERBrownfields · 2300 ft
- RICH OIL #1061Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FORMER DENVER'S SALEM TOWINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GREASE MONKEY CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BP OIL COBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SALEM AVE SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort McKinley'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 McKinley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort McKinley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort McKinley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort McKinley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort McKinley — Superfund (47 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (154 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fort McKinley
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 McKinley average
Your land is one point inside Fort McKinley
Everything above resolves to Fort McKinley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 854 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 McKinley Average
Fort McKinley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fort McKinley
- ●One soil character for all of Fort McKinley
- ●Frost dates read at Fort McKinley's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort McKinley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort McKinley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort McKinley, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort McKinley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort McKinley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort McKinley average
How we know this about Fort McKinley
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 McKinley’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 McKinley
When does frost risk typically end in Fort McKinley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort McKinley typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Fort McKinley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort McKinley typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort McKinley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort McKinley sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 23, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort McKinley?
The federal record around Fort McKinley runs heavier than most — 1,994 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (950), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort McKinley?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort McKinley's scale — its 6b band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort McKinley'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 McKinley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort McKinley's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 854 acres it covers and 1,994 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort McKinley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort McKinley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 2 and Nov 6 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,994 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort McKinley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort McKinley's boundary and the 854 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 ecoregion at Fort McKinley's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort McKinleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort McKinley's 854 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort McKinley's 854 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort McKinley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 854 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 McKinley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioFort McKinley sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.