Payne, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Payne, 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 Payne 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 Payne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Payne — the short answer
Payne, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 435 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 435 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 Payne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Payne's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Payne
Each reading below is measured for Payne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPayne runs about 200 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
MeasuredPayne 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 Payne is in
Payne sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Payne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Paulding County.
What Grows in Payne
Every plant below cleared Payne's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Payne?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Oct 28 — 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 Payne
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Payne, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Payne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Payne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOMIER AND SONSBrownfields · 200 ft
- C & Y OIL CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- PAYNE MARAMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPE LINE COUNTY RD 11 DRIP TAPSBrownfields · 250 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #12331Brownfields · 900 ft
- PAYNE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PAYNE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TIMBER ROAD WINDBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- EDWIN F GORDONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Panhandle Eastern PipelineUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- PANHANDLE EASTERN PIPE LINE CO EDGERTBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- NIPSCO - PANHANDLE EDGERTON M&R STATIONBrownfields · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Payne'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 Payne.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Payne
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Payne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Payne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Payne, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Payne. 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 Payne
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 Payne average
Your land is one point inside Payne
Everything above resolves to Payne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 435 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 Payne Average
Payne Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Payne
- ●One soil character for all of Payne
- ●Frost dates read at Payne's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Payne's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Payne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Payne, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Payne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Payne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Payne average
How we know this about Payne
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 Payne’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 Payne
When does frost risk typically end in Payne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Payne 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 Payne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Payne typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Payne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Payne sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 14, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Payne?
The federal record around Payne is a meaningful one — 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), 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 Payne?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Payne's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Payne'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 Payne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Payne's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 435 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Payne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Payne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 28 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Payne, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Payne's boundary and the 435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Payne's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Paynelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Payne's 435 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Paulding County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Paulding 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 Paulding County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Payne's 435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Payne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 435 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 Payne-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioPayne sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.