McArthur, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McArthur, 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 McArthur 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 McArthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McArthur — the short answer
McArthur, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- 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)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 McArthur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McArthur's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McArthur
Each reading below is measured for McArthur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcArthur runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMcArthur 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 McArthur is in
McArthur sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McArthur's own centroid rather than borrowed from Vinton County.
What Grows in McArthur
Every plant below cleared McArthur's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McArthur?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near McArthur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McArthur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VINTON COUNTY INDUSTRIAL PARKBrownfields · 250 ft
- BUD'S ONE STOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BP OIL COBrownfields · 300 ft
- VINTON COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- VINTON CO SCHOOLS BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- VINTON COUNTY LOCAL SCHOOLS BUS GARAGEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- V-1 OHNitrate · 1100 ft
- LINDA WALKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CLARK'S PUMP N SHOP #19Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- VINTON COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MAIN EXPRESS CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GLANDON LOGGING, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McArthur'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 McArthur.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of McArthur
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McArthur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McArthur
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in McArthur
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 McArthur average
Your land is one point inside McArthur
Everything above resolves to McArthur as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 McArthur Average
McArthur Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across McArthur
- ●One soil character for all of McArthur
- ●Frost dates read at McArthur's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McArthur's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McArthur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McArthur, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McArthur averages can't show:
We read public map data around McArthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McArthur average
How we know this about McArthur
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 McArthur’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 McArthur
When does frost risk typically end in McArthur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McArthur 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 McArthur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McArthur typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McArthur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McArthur sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McArthur?
The federal record around McArthur is a meaningful one — 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 McArthur?
From about Sep 25 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 Oct 25 (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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McArthur's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McArthur'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 McArthur’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McArthur's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,080 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McArthur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McArthur's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 25 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McArthur, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McArthur's boundary and the 1,080 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McArthur's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McArthur's 1,080 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Vinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Vinton 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 Vinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McArthur's 1,080 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McArthur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,080 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 McArthur-wide figureread your own land →
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