What USDA hardiness zone is Wayne County, Ohio?

Wayne County, Ohio spans USDA hardiness zones 6a to 6b. 92% of its ZIP codes are zone 6a, so there is no single zone for the county.

When is the last spring frost in Wayne County, Ohio?

The median last spring freeze runs April 24 – April 30 across the 4 NOAA weather stations serving Wayne County, Ohio, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Ohio

Planting zones in Wayne County, Ohio

This county spans USDA zones 6a to 6b, so there is no single zone for Wayne County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 92% of its ZIP codes are zone 6a; the rest are not.

USDA zones 6a–6b 2 zones across 13 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 13 13 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 4 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 555 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Wayne County, Ohio as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

The growing season in Wayne County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 12 – October 21 across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around February 27 – March 5 — counted back from a last spring freeze of April 24 – April 30 here.

Every spring date for your ZIP →

These are ranges across the whole county. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.

All 4 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 4 NOAA stations serving this county counts April 30 – October 12 as growing season (165 days). Widening to any single station gives April 24 – October 21 (180 days).

Which zone you are in depends where you are

Wayne County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 92% in zone 6a and wrong for the other 8%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
6a	12	92%
6b	1	8%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze April 24 – April 30

First fall freeze October 12 – October 21

Across the 4 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 163–177 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 79.8–82 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 11.2–13.1" across those 4 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 97% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 81 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Wayne County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
44214	6a	Chippewa Lake, OH	12.3 km
44217	6a	Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	9.1 km
44230	6b	Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	19.2 km
44270	6a	Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	13.6 km
44276	6a	Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	8.5 km
44287	6a	Chippewa Lake, OH	18.8 km
44606	6a	Wooster 3 Sse, OH	9.8 km
44618	6a	Wooster 3 Sse, OH	19.3 km
44645	6a	Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	14.7 km
44667	6a	Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	11.1 km
44676	6a	Wooster 3 Sse, OH	13.2 km
44677	6a	Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	2.4 km
44691	6a	Wooster Exp Station, OH	5.7 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Wayne County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 4 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	February 27 – March 5	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	February 27 – March 5	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	March 13 – March 19	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	March 20 – March 26	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	March 20 – March 26	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	March 20 – March 26	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	March 27 – April 2	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	April 3 – April 9	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	April 10 – April 16	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	April 10 – April 16	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	April 10 – April 16	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	April 10 – April 16	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	April 10 – April 16	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	April 10 – April 16	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	April 10 – April 16	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	April 17 – April 23	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	May 1 – May 7	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	May 8 – May 14	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	May 8 – May 14	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	May 8 – May 14	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	May 8 – May 14	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	May 8 – May 14	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	May 8 – May 14	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What survives the winter changes across Wayne County

Zone 6a carries 51 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 6a carries 51.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to May 18 to be careful. Median April 24 – April 30 across 4 stations; April 10 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to September 29 to be careful. Median October 12 – October 21 across 4 stations; November 3 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 4 stations behind these numbers

All 4 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 32 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Chippewa Lake, OH	USC00331541	April 29	October 19	172 days
Wooster 3 Sse, OH	USW00054856	April 24	October 21	177 days
Wooster Exp Station, OH	USC00339312	April 30	October 12	163 days
Wooster Wayne Co AP, OH	USW00004842	April 29	October 14	167 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Wayne County sits in Ohio. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of Ohio

Counties with the same zones — 6a–6b

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Trunk wrapZone 6a is cold enough that winter sun on a young trunk does more damage than the cold does.
Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 6a, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.