Middlebranch, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Middlebranch, 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 Middlebranch 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 Middlebranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Middlebranch — the short answer
Middlebranch, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 538 acres of town.
- 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 538 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 Middlebranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middlebranch's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middlebranch
Each reading below is measured for Middlebranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiddlebranch runs about 214 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
MeasuredMiddlebranch 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 Middlebranch is in
Middlebranch sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Middlebranch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stark County.
What Grows in Middlebranch
Every plant below cleared Middlebranch's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middlebranch?
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 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 10 — 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 Middlebranch
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Middlebranch, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Middlebranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middlebranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HEIDELBERG MATERIALS US CEMENT LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- ESSROC MATERIALS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CONSOLIDATED TREATMENT SYSTEMS NORTH, LLC (1576001621)Toxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- AXIM CONCRETE TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- MIDDLEBRANCH COLLISION CENTER LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WHBC RADIO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PLAIN LOCAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF CANTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GASTOWN #3644Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SPEEDWAY 9148Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #3237Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- SPEEDWAY#9148Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middlebranch'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 Middlebranch.
Total Sites
1,127
within ~10 miles of Middlebranch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middlebranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middlebranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middlebranch, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 101 sites within ~10 miles of Middlebranch. 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 Middlebranch
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 Middlebranch average
Your land is one point inside Middlebranch
Everything above resolves to Middlebranch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 538 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 Middlebranch Average
Middlebranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Middlebranch
- ●One soil character for all of Middlebranch
- ●Frost dates read at Middlebranch's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middlebranch's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middlebranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middlebranch, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middlebranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middlebranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middlebranch average
How we know this about Middlebranch
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 Middlebranch’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 Middlebranch
When does frost risk typically end in Middlebranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middlebranch 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 Middlebranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middlebranch typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middlebranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middlebranch sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 27, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middlebranch?
The federal record around Middlebranch is a meaningful one — 1,127 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (580), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 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 Middlebranch?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Middlebranch's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middlebranch'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 Middlebranch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Middlebranch's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 538 acres it covers and 1,127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middlebranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Middlebranch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 10 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middlebranch, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middlebranch's boundary and the 538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Middlebranch's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Middlebranchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Middlebranch's 538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stark County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stark 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 Stark County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Middlebranch's 538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middlebranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 538 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.4 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 Middlebranch-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioMiddlebranch sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides