Wright-Patterson AFB, 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.
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 Wright-Patterson AFB, 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 Wright-Patterson AFB 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 Wright-Patterson AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wright-Patterson AFB — the short answer
Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- 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
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Wright-Patterson AFB's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wright-Patterson AFB's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wright-Patterson AFB
Each reading below is measured for Wright-Patterson AFB itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWright-Patterson AFB runs about 213 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
MeasuredWright-Patterson AFB 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 Wright-Patterson AFB is in
Wright-Patterson AFB sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wright-Patterson AFB's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Wright-Patterson AFB
Every plant below cleared Wright-Patterson AFB's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wright-Patterson AFB?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Wright-Patterson AFB
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Wright-Patterson AFB, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wright-Patterson AFB
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wright-Patterson AFB. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB AREA A PWSPFAS · 25 ft
- WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB AREA B PWSPFAS · 25 ft
- GR-334 WPAFB OHNitrate · 0.7 mi
- GR-333 WPAFB OHNitrate · 0.7 mi
- GR-673Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- GR-321Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- GR-322 USGS OBSERVATION WELL AT WPAFB OHNitrate · 0.8 mi
- GR-319 USGS OBSERVATION WELL AT WPAFB OHNitrate · 1.0 mi
- GR-318Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- CITY STREET MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BP OIL CO. #09676Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FAIRBORN TIRE & BATTERY CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wright-Patterson AFB'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 Wright-Patterson AFB.
Total Sites
1,685
within ~10 miles of Wright-Patterson AFB
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
43 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wright-Patterson AFB
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wright-Patterson AFB
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wright-Patterson AFB, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wright-Patterson AFB — Superfund (43 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (125 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Wright-Patterson AFB
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 Wright-Patterson AFB average
Your land is one point inside Wright-Patterson AFB
Everything above resolves to Wright-Patterson AFB as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Wright-Patterson AFB Average
Wright-Patterson AFB Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wright-Patterson AFB
- ●One soil character for all of Wright-Patterson AFB
- ●Frost dates read at Wright-Patterson AFB's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wright-Patterson AFB's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wright-Patterson AFB
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wright-Patterson AFB averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wright-Patterson AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wright-Patterson AFB average
How we know this about Wright-Patterson AFB
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 Wright-Patterson AFB’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 Wright-Patterson AFB
When does frost risk typically end in Wright-Patterson AFB?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wright-Patterson AFB typically lands around Apr 4, 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Wright-Patterson AFB?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wright-Patterson AFB 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 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wright-Patterson AFB?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wright-Patterson AFB sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 20, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wright-Patterson AFB?
The federal record around Wright-Patterson AFB runs heavier than most — 1,685 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (770), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wright-Patterson AFB?
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 Wright-Patterson AFB's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wright-Patterson AFB'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 Wright-Patterson AFB’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wright-Patterson AFB's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,319 acres it covers and 1,685 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wright-Patterson AFB's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wright-Patterson AFB's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 3 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,685 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wright-Patterson AFB, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wright-Patterson AFB's boundary and the 6,319 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wright-Patterson AFB's own centroid, the Eastern Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wright-Patterson AFBlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wright-Patterson AFB's 6,319 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wright-Patterson AFB's 6,319 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wright-Patterson AFB you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,319 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Wright-Patterson AFB-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Wider growing context
What grows across OhioWright-Patterson AFB sits outside our named growing regions, so Ohio as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides