Zone Finder & Plant Care
Simple, practical care for everything we grow and sell — written for Perrysburg and Northwest Ohio (USDA Zone 6b). For each plant you’ll find its hardiness zone, sun, water, fertilizer, winter care, pruning and common pests. Every plant comes with free advice, so message us anytime.
Our frost dates: average last spring frost early May (plant tender plants about mid-May); first fall frost early to mid-October.
📖 Plant Care Guides — 5 parts
1. Zone Finder & Storage (you are here)
2. Citrus & Tropicals
3. Trees, Shrubs & Perennials
4. Flowers & Hanging Baskets
5. Vegetables, Herbs & Garlic
🧺 Fridge or Counter? Storing Your Produce
Fresh-picked produce lasts longest when each kind is stored the way it likes. A few rules for everything:
• Don’t wash before storing. Extra moisture speeds rot. Wash right before you eat or cook.
• Keep your fridge at 40 °F or below and check produce every few days. Pull out anything soft so it doesn’t spread.
• Keep tomatoes, bananas and apples apart from lettuce, cucumbers and cut flowers. They give off ethylene gas that makes their neighbors spoil or wilt faster.
🥬 Lettuce — Fridge. Wrap unwashed leaves loosely in a dry paper towel, then put them in a bag or container in the crisper drawer. Leaf lettuce keeps about 5–7 days, heads a little longer. If it wilts, soak it in ice water for 15 minutes to crisp it back up.
🌶 Hot peppers — Fridge. Unwashed, in a paper bag or a loosely closed bag in the crisper: 1–2 weeks. To keep them for months, freeze them whole (no blanching needed), dry them or pickle them.
🫑 Sweet peppers — Fridge. Unwashed, in the crisper: 1–2 weeks. To freeze, slice, spread on a tray until firm, then bag. No blanching needed.
🍆 Eggplant — Cool spot, then fridge. Best used within a few days. Keep it in the coolest spot in your kitchen for a day or two, or wrap it and refrigerate up to about 5 days; longer in the cold causes brown spots. Don’t cut it until you’re ready to cook.
🍅 Tomatoes — Counter. Stem side down, out of direct sun. Refrigerate only fully ripe tomatoes you can’t use in a day or two, and let them come back to room temperature before eating for the best flavor.
🥒 Cucumbers — Fridge. Wrapped, in the warmest part of the fridge (the front or the door). Use within about a week and keep them away from tomatoes and bananas.
🫘 Beans — Fridge. Unwashed, in a bag: up to a week.
🧄 Garlic (cured) — Cool, dry, dark place. A basket or mesh bag with air flow; not the fridge and not plastic. Our hardneck garlic keeps about 4–6 months. Never keep garlic in oil at room temperature: refrigerate garlic-in-oil and use it within 4 days, or freeze it.
🌱 Garlic scapes — Fridge. In a bag: 2–3 weeks. Or blend them into pesto and freeze.
🧅 Onions (cured) — Cool, dry, dark place. With air flow; not in plastic and not next to potatoes. Once cut, wrap and refrigerate up to 7–10 days.
🥔 Potatoes — Cool, dark place. Ventilated, about 45–50 °F, not the fridge, and away from onions. Trim off any green spots before cooking.
🌿 Herbs — Counter or fridge. Basil stays on the counter like a bouquet, stems in a glass of water, because the fridge turns it black. Parsley, cilantro, mint and dill: trim the stems, stand them in a jar of water, cover loosely with a bag and refrigerate. Rosemary, thyme and sage: wrap in a damp paper towel and refrigerate in a bag.
🍋 Citrus fruit — Counter or fridge. About a week on the counter, or 3–4 weeks in the crisper drawer.
🍌 Bananas — Counter. Let them ripen at room temperature, away from other produce. Once ripe, the fridge buys a few more days; the peel darkens but the fruit stays good.
💐 Cut flowers — Cool spot. Recut stems at an angle, use a clean vase, change the water every 2 days, and keep them out of the sun and away from the fruit bowl.
🐞 For a full pest and disease guide and our Zone 6b planting calendar, see our Garden Guides.
🧼 Wash all produce before eating, and read our Food Safety & Disclaimers.
❓ Questions? Email info@poeslittlefarm.com or text “Poe’s” and your question to 419-349-8242 (texting hours Mon–Fri 9 am–5 pm, Sat 10 am–3 pm) — we’re happy to help.