Wooster, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Wooster, 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 Wooster 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 Wooster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wooster — the short answer
Wooster, Ohio: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- 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
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Wooster's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wooster's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wooster
Each reading below is measured for Wooster itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWooster runs about 196 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
MeasuredWooster 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 Wooster is in
Wooster sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wooster's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Wooster
Every plant below cleared Wooster's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wooster?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Wooster
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Wooster, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wooster
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wooster. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEALL AND WINTER CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WOOSTER COMMUNITY HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WOOSTER COMMUNITY HOSPITALBrownfields · 850 ft
- BELLSTORES #131Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ONE HOUR CLEANERSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SEARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- COLLEGE OF WOOSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SPEEDWAY #1200Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- COLLEGE OF WOOSTERBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BP OIL COBrownfields · 2000 ft
- STARVIN MARVIN 1200 *Brownfields · 2000 ft
- WOOSTER BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wooster'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 Wooster.
Total Sites
393
within ~10 miles of Wooster
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wooster
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wooster
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wooster, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Wooster. 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 Wooster
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 Wooster average
Your land is one point inside Wooster
Everything above resolves to Wooster as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Wooster Average
Wooster Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Wooster
- ●One soil character for all of Wooster
- ●Frost dates read at Wooster's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wooster's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wooster
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wooster, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wooster averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wooster — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wooster average
How we know this about Wooster
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 Wooster’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 Wooster
When does frost risk typically end in Wooster?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wooster typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Wooster?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wooster 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wooster?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wooster sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 16, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wooster?
The federal record around Wooster is a meaningful one — 393 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (179), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wooster?
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 Wooster's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wooster'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 Wooster’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wooster's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,172 acres it covers and 393 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wooster's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wooster's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 30 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 393 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wooster, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wooster's boundary and the 11,172 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wooster's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woosterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wooster's 11,172 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wooster's 11,172 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wooster you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,172 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wooster-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioWooster sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides