Ottoville, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ottoville, 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 Ottoville 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 Ottoville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ottoville — the short answer
Ottoville, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 606 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 606 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 Ottoville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ottoville's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ottoville
Each reading below is measured for Ottoville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOttoville runs about 208 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
MeasuredOttoville 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 Ottoville is in
Ottoville sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ottoville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Putnam County.
What Grows in Ottoville
Every plant below cleared Ottoville's own zone 6a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ottoville?
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 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 Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Ottoville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ottoville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 45 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ottoville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ottoville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOOSER BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- MILLER PRECISIONBrownfields · 350 ft
- HOEHN CABINETS INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- NIEDECKEN INSURANCEBrownfields · 450 ft
- EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ACME MACHINE AUTOMATICS, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- PROGRESSIVE STAMPING INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- A & D TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TERRY WANNEMACHERS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- STANZ OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- J & P TRUCKING (AMB 725-0394306Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BETTY J STANZUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ottoville'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 Ottoville.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Ottoville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ottoville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ottoville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ottoville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Ottoville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Ottoville
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 Ottoville average
Your land is one point inside Ottoville
Everything above resolves to Ottoville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 606 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 Ottoville Average
Ottoville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ottoville
- ●One soil character for all of Ottoville
- ●Frost dates read at Ottoville's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ottoville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ottoville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ottoville, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ottoville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ottoville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ottoville average
How we know this about Ottoville
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 Ottoville’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 Ottoville
When does frost risk typically end in Ottoville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ottoville 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 Ottoville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ottoville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ottoville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ottoville sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 20, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ottoville?
The federal record around Ottoville is a meaningful one — 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ottoville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ottoville's scale — its 6a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ottoville'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 Ottoville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ottoville's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 606 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ottoville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ottoville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 3 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ottoville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ottoville's boundary and the 606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ottoville's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ottoville checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ottoville's 606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ottoville's 606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ottoville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 606 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ottoville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioOttoville sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides