Indiana County, in Pennsylvania, 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.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Indiana County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Indiana County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Indiana County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Indiana County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Indiana County — the short answer
Indiana County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 530K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 530K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Indiana County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Indiana County's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Indiana County
Across a year, Indiana County accumulates about 2,485 growing degree days above 50°F, about 62 fewer than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 29 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Indiana County
Across Indiana County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Gilpin, Ernest, and Bethesda are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.7–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
22%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Indiana County
The USDA soil survey maps 65% of Indiana County as well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 25% moderately well drained, 4% poorly drained.
Gilpin is the most extensive named soil at 34% of mapped acres, then Ernest (12%) and Bethesda (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Indiana County
Each reading below is measured for Indiana County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Indiana County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Indiana County runs about pH 4.7–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredIndiana County 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
MeasuredIndiana County 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 Indiana County is in
Indiana County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Allegheny Plateau (58%) and Central Appalachians (42%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Indiana County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Indiana County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 196-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile.
Is it too late to plant in Indiana County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Indiana County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Indiana County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle10 documented records
- monarch butterfly123 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Indiana County
USGS estimates 80,515 lb of Glyphosate on Indiana County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (24,920 lb) and Atrazine (24,301 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Indiana County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Indiana County — 1,092 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 24 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Indiana County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Indiana County
Closest first, across Indiana County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMPBELLS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- JOHN BLAZAVICH SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SCI PINE GROVE PRISONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- IN 405Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- IN 407Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- RAY I WINTERS & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CABOT OIL & GAS CORPBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- INDIANA CNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PENELEC - INDIANA DIST OFFBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- INDIANA DIST OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GAS ANALYTICAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- FALCON DRILLINGBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Indiana County'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 Indiana County.
Total Sites
1,092
across Indiana County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
24 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Indiana County
Severity Distribution
across Indiana County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Indiana County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 600 sites across Indiana County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Indiana County
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 Indiana County average
Your land is one point inside Indiana County
Everything above resolves to Indiana County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 530K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Indiana County Average
Indiana County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Indiana County
- ●One soil character for all of Indiana County
- ●Frost dates read at Indiana County's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Indiana County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Indiana County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Indiana County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Indiana County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Indiana County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Indiana County average
How we know this about Indiana County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Indiana County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Indiana County
When does frost risk typically end in Indiana County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Indiana County 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.
How long is the growing season in Indiana County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Indiana County 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 Indiana County?
The federal record around Indiana County is a meaningful one — 1,092 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (600), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Indiana County's scale — its 6b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Indiana County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Pennsylvania's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Indiana County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Indiana County's own scale — its own ~196-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,092 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Indiana County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Indiana County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Indiana CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,092 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Indiana County's boundary and the 529,531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Indiana County spans, Western Allegheny Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Indiana County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Indiana County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Indiana County — the ~196 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Indiana County's 529,531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,092 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Indiana Countyread your own land →