Fostoria, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fostoria, 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 Fostoria 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 Fostoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fostoria — the short answer
Fostoria, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Fostoria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fostoria's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fostoria
Each reading below is measured for Fostoria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFostoria 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
MeasuredFostoria 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 Fostoria is in
Fostoria sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fostoria's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Seneca County is mostly Huron/Erie Lake Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fostoria
Every plant below cleared Fostoria'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 Fostoria?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Fostoria
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Fostoria, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fostoria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fostoria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OHIO BELL TELEPHONE CO. L52101Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MILLER TOWINGBrownfields · 750 ft
- FOSTORIA CITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KROGER #856Brownfields · 1100 ft
- KROGER N-856Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JACK'S CARRY OUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LAUNDROLUXBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FIRESTONE STORE #1545/001872Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FOSTORIA CITY BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KROGER STORE #103Brownfields · 1600 ft
- MR B'S CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GERALD F. LOWERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fostoria'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 Fostoria.
Total Sites
188
within ~10 miles of Fostoria
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fostoria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fostoria
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fostoria, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fostoria — Superfund (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Fostoria
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 Fostoria average
Your land is one point inside Fostoria
Everything above resolves to Fostoria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Fostoria Average
Fostoria Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fostoria
- ●One soil character for all of Fostoria
- ●Frost dates read at Fostoria's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fostoria's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fostoria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fostoria, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fostoria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fostoria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fostoria average
How we know this about Fostoria
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 Fostoria’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 Fostoria
When does frost risk typically end in Fostoria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fostoria typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Fostoria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fostoria typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fostoria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fostoria sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 25, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fostoria?
The federal record around Fostoria is a meaningful one — 188 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fostoria?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fostoria's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fostoria'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 Fostoria’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fostoria's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,847 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fostoria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fostoria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 8 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fostoria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fostoria's boundary and the 4,847 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fostoria sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fostorialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fostoria's 4,847 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Seneca County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Seneca 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 Seneca County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fostoria's 4,847 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fostoria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,847 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fostoria-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioFostoria sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides