Zoar, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Zoar, 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 Zoar 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 Zoar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Zoar — the short answer
Zoar, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 369 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 369 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 Zoar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Zoar's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Zoar
Each reading below is measured for Zoar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredZoar 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
MeasuredZoar 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 Zoar is in
Zoar sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Zoar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tuscarawas County.
What Grows in Zoar
Every plant below cleared Zoar'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 Zoar?
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 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 Zoar
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Zoar, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Zoar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Zoar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW CASTLE REFRACTORIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ODOT ZOAR OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ZOAR VILLAGE STATE MEMORIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ZOAR WATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ZOAR MINING CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- TCMSD-WILKSHIRE HILLS PWSPFAS · 0.9 mi
- WILKSHIRE HILLS TREATMENT PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6157Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- GIANT EAGLE STORE #4016Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- SPEEDWAY 6241Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- Speedway # 6241Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CHRYSLER FIRST BUSINESS CREDIT CUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Zoar'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 Zoar.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Zoar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Zoar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Zoar, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Zoar — Superfund (9 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (35 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Zoar
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 Zoar average
Your land is one point inside Zoar
Everything above resolves to Zoar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 369 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 Zoar Average
Zoar Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Zoar
- ●One soil character for all of Zoar
- ●Frost dates read at Zoar's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Zoar's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Zoar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Zoar, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Zoar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Zoar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Zoar average
How we know this about Zoar
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 Zoar’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 Zoar
When does frost risk typically end in Zoar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Zoar 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 Zoar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Zoar 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 Zoar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Zoar 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 Zoar?
The federal record around Zoar is a meaningful one — 481 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (232), 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 Zoar?
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 Zoar's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Zoar'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 Zoar’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Zoar's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 369 acres it covers and 481 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Zoar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Zoar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 5 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 481 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Zoar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Zoar's boundary and the 369 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 Zoar's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Zoarlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Zoar's 369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuscarawas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuscarawas 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 Tuscarawas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Zoar's 369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Zoar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 369 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 Zoar-wide figureread your own land →
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