Wauseon, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wauseon, 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 Wauseon 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 Wauseon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wauseon — the short answer
Wauseon, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Wauseon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wauseon's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wauseon
Each reading below is measured for Wauseon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWauseon runs about 197 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
MeasuredWauseon 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 Wauseon is in
Wauseon sits in the Huron/Erie Lake Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wauseon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fulton County.
What Grows in Wauseon
Every plant below cleared Wauseon's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wauseon?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Wauseon
Spotted lanternfly documented 26 miles from Wauseon, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wauseon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wauseon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOHIO WAUSEON BULK 289Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Circle K 5631Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MUSTANG, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CERTIFIED OIL CO. #412Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CIRCLE K #5631Brownfields · 1100 ft
- RUPP SEWING SHOPPE LLCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- FORMER CERTIFIED OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GIFFIN AUTOSPORTS/GIFFIN POWERWASHBrownfields · 1200 ft
- NEBRASKA INDSToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- CENTURYLINKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HASS DOOR COBrownfields · 1600 ft
- HASS DOOR COToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wauseon'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 Wauseon.
Total Sites
223
within ~10 miles of Wauseon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wauseon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wauseon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wauseon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wauseon — Toxics Release Inventory (34 sites) and Superfund (3 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 Wauseon
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 Wauseon average
Your land is one point inside Wauseon
Everything above resolves to Wauseon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Wauseon Average
Wauseon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wauseon
- ●One soil character for all of Wauseon
- ●Frost dates read at Wauseon's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wauseon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wauseon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wauseon, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wauseon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wauseon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wauseon average
How we know this about Wauseon
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 Wauseon’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 Wauseon
When does frost risk typically end in Wauseon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wauseon typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Wauseon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wauseon 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 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wauseon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wauseon sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 16, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wauseon?
The federal record around Wauseon is a meaningful one — 223 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Wauseon?
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 Wauseon's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wauseon'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 Wauseon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wauseon's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,405 acres it covers and 223 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wauseon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wauseon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 30 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 223 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wauseon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wauseon's boundary and the 3,405 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wauseon's own centroid, the Huron/Erie Lake PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wauseonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wauseon's 3,405 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fulton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fulton 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 Fulton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wauseon's 3,405 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wauseon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,405 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Wauseon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioWauseon sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides