Pekin, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pekin, 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 Pekin 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 Pekin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pekin — the short answer
Pekin, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 320 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- 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
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 320 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 Pekin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pekin's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pekin
Each reading below is measured for Pekin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPekin runs about 204 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
MeasuredPekin 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 Pekin is in
Pekin sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pekin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carroll County.
What Grows in Pekin
Every plant below cleared Pekin's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pekin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Pekin
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Pekin, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pekin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pekin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2608Brownfields · 1500 ft
- MAPLETON DEVELOPMENT INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- SUMMITVILLE TILES INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SUMMITVILLE TILES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- GTE NORTH, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FRAMCO SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GREIF INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- COLFOR MFG MACHINING DIV MINERVA OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- COLFOR MFG MACHINING DIV MINERVA OPERATIONSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #4594Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- IMPERIAL ALUMINUM - MINERVA, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- GENERAL COLOR & CHEMICAL CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pekin'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 Pekin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pekin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pekin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pekin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pekin — Superfund (5 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Pekin
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 Pekin average
Your land is one point inside Pekin
Everything above resolves to Pekin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 320 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 Pekin Average
Pekin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pekin
- ●One soil character for all of Pekin
- ●Frost dates read at Pekin's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pekin's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pekin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pekin, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pekin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pekin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pekin average
How we know this about Pekin
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 Pekin’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 Pekin
When does frost risk typically end in Pekin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pekin typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Pekin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pekin 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 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pekin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pekin sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 20, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pekin?
The federal record around Pekin is a meaningful one — 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Pekin?
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 Pekin's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pekin'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 Pekin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pekin's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 320 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pekin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pekin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 3 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pekin, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pekin's boundary and the 320 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pekin's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pekinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pekin's 320 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carroll County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carroll 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 Carroll County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pekin's 320 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pekin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 320 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Pekin-wide figureread your own land →
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