Old Fort, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Old Fort, 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 Old Fort 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 Old Fort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Old Fort — the short answer
Old Fort, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 369 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 369 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 6a is Old Fort's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Old Fort's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Old Fort
Each reading below is measured for Old Fort itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOld Fort runs about 198 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
MeasuredOld Fort sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Old Fort is in
Old Fort sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Old Fort's own centroid rather than borrowed from Seneca County.
What Grows in Old Fort
Every plant below cleared Old Fort's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Old Fort?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Old Fort
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Old Fort, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Old Fort
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Old Fort. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STEVE'S BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- OLD FORT LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CARD N-GO FUELSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- S-123-B32 GUTH NR GREEN SPRINGS OHNitrate · 1.5 mi
- DOME PETROLEUM CORP.- GREEN SPRINGS TERMINALBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- CHURCH AND DWIGHT CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- CHURCH AND DWIGHT CO INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- GREINER'S LAGOONSSuperfund · 2.2 mi
- FORMER FT SENECA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- M & B ASPHALT CO INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- Maple Grove Lime PlantMining · 3.1 mi
- CARMEUSE LIME MAPLE GROVE OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Old Fort'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 Old Fort.
Total Sites
364
within ~10 miles of Old Fort
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Old Fort
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Old Fort
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Old Fort, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Old Fort — Toxics Release Inventory (36 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Old Fort
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 Old Fort average
Your land is one point inside Old Fort
Everything above resolves to Old Fort as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 369 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 Old Fort Average
Old Fort Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Old Fort
- ●One soil character for all of Old Fort
- ●Frost dates read at Old Fort's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Old Fort's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Old Fort
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Old Fort, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Old Fort averages can't show:
We read public map data around Old Fort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Old Fort average
How we know this about Old Fort
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 Old Fort’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 Old Fort
When does frost risk typically end in Old Fort?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Old Fort typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Old Fort?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Old Fort typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Old Fort?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Old Fort sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 16, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Old Fort?
The federal record around Old Fort is a meaningful one — 364 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (157), 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 Old Fort?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Old Fort's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Old Fort'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 Old Fort’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Old Fort's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 369 acres it covers and 364 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Old Fort's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Old Fort's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 30 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 364 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Old Fort, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Old Fort's boundary and the 369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Old Fort's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Old Fortlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Old Fort's 369 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 Old Fort's 369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Old Fort you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 369 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 Old Fort-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioOld Fort sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides