Malta, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Malta, 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 Malta 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 Malta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Malta — the short answer
Malta, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 220 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 220 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 Malta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Malta's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Malta
Each reading below is measured for Malta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMalta runs about 204 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
MeasuredMalta 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 Malta is in
Malta sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Malta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Malta
Every plant below cleared Malta's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Malta?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Malta
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Malta, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Malta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Malta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #1919Brownfields · 450 ft
- PAR MAR FOOD STORE #5Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BFS PETROLEUM PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. STAT. #314Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MALTA TOWNSHIP GARAGEBrownfields · 1700 ft
- GUTBERLET CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GREUEY FUEL & FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TIMMY V''SUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GUTBERLET CHEVROLETBrownfields · 2000 ft
- KROGER STORE 251Brownfields · 2100 ft
- MORGAN CO. HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MALTA COToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Malta'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 Malta.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Malta
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Malta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Malta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Malta, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Malta. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Malta
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 Malta average
Your land is one point inside Malta
Everything above resolves to Malta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 220 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 Malta Average
Malta Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Malta
- ●One soil character for all of Malta
- ●Frost dates read at Malta's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Malta's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Malta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Malta, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Malta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Malta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Malta average
How we know this about Malta
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 Malta’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 Malta
When does frost risk typically end in Malta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Malta typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Malta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Malta typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Malta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Malta sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 18, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Malta?
The federal record around Malta shows 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Malta?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Malta's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Malta'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 Malta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Malta's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 220 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Malta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Malta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 1 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Malta, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Malta's boundary and the 220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Malta's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Maltalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Malta's 220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Malta's 220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Malta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Malta-wide figureread your own land →
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