Tiffin, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Tiffin, 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 Tiffin 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 Tiffin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tiffin — the short answer
Tiffin, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Tiffin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tiffin's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tiffin
Each reading below is measured for Tiffin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTiffin 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
MeasuredTiffin 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 Tiffin is in
Tiffin sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tiffin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Seneca County.
What Grows in Tiffin
Every plant below cleared Tiffin's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tiffin?
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 Nov 5 — 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 Tiffin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tiffin checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tiffin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tiffin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TIFFIN RECREATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CRYSTAL CLEANERS CORPBrownfields · 350 ft
- SENECA COUNTY SHERIFFUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BAUMGARDNER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SENECA COUNTY COMMISSIONERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OHIO BELL TELEPHONE CO. L52501Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JAN RIEDLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EXTREME AUTO CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SUZANNE JACKSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FORT BALL TRUE VALUE HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FORMER RAINBOW MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TIFFIN MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tiffin'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 Tiffin.
Total Sites
174
within ~10 miles of Tiffin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tiffin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tiffin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tiffin, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Tiffin. 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 Tiffin
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 Tiffin average
Your land is one point inside Tiffin
Everything above resolves to Tiffin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 Tiffin Average
Tiffin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tiffin
- ●One soil character for all of Tiffin
- ●Frost dates read at Tiffin's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tiffin's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tiffin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tiffin, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tiffin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tiffin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tiffin average
How we know this about Tiffin
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Tiffin’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Tiffin
When does frost risk typically end in Tiffin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tiffin 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 Tiffin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tiffin typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tiffin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tiffin sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 22, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tiffin?
The federal record around Tiffin is a meaningful one — 174 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), 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 Tiffin?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tiffin's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tiffin'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 Tiffin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tiffin's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,630 acres it covers and 174 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tiffin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tiffin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 5 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tiffin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tiffin's boundary and the 4,630 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tiffin's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tiffin 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 Tiffin's 4,630 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 Tiffin's 4,630 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tiffin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,630 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 Tiffin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioTiffin sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides