Lonaconing, Maryland, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lonaconing, 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 Lonaconing 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 Lonaconing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lonaconing — the short answer
Lonaconing, Maryland: USDA zone 6b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 232 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 232 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 Lonaconing's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lonaconing's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lonaconing
Each reading below is measured for Lonaconing itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLonaconing runs about 205 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
MeasuredLonaconing 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 Lonaconing is in
Lonaconing sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lonaconing's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Allegany County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lonaconing
Every plant below cleared Lonaconing's own zone 6b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Maryland profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lonaconing?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (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. 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 Lonaconing
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Lonaconing, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lonaconing
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lonaconing. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lonaconing TippleUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Lonaconing CDO 31170Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Lonaconing Motor Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- McKenzie ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Pit N Go #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- The Gashouse, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Allegany County Roads Division - Lanaconing GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- AL Cb 8Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- MINE #5 TIPPLEToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- Dan's Mountain State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Shaw's Service Station (Exxon)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AL Ca 8Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lonaconing'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 Lonaconing.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lonaconing
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lonaconing
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Lonaconing
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 Lonaconing average
Your land is one point inside Lonaconing
Everything above resolves to Lonaconing as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 232 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 Lonaconing Average
Lonaconing Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lonaconing
- ●One soil character for all of Lonaconing
- ●Frost dates read at Lonaconing's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lonaconing's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lonaconing
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lonaconing, Maryland — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lonaconing averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lonaconing — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lonaconing average
How we know this about Lonaconing
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 Lonaconing’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 Lonaconing
When does frost risk typically end in Lonaconing?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lonaconing typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Lonaconing?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lonaconing typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lonaconing?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lonaconing sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 16, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lonaconing?
The federal record around Lonaconing is a meaningful one — 313 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (188), 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 Lonaconing?
From about Sep 30 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 Oct 30 (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 Oct 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lonaconing's scale — its 6b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lonaconing'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 Lonaconing’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lonaconing's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 232 acres it covers and 313 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lonaconing's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lonaconing's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 30 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 313 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lonaconing, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lonaconing's boundary and the 232 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lonaconing sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lonaconinglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lonaconing's 232 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegany County
- The growing challenges every Maryland grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Maryland
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Allegany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lonaconing's 232 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lonaconing you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 232 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 Lonaconing-wide figureread your own land →
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