Akron, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Akron, 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 Akron 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 Akron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Akron — the short answer
Akron, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 785 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 785 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 7a is Akron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Akron's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Akron
Each reading below is measured for Akron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAkron runs about 223 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
MeasuredAkron sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Akron is in
Akron sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Akron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Akron
Every plant below cleared Akron's own zone 7a and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Akron?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Akron
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Akron, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Akron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Akron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AKRON NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TURKEY HILL 39Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AKRON BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MENNONITE CTL COMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- COLEBROOK TERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HOMESTEAD CUSTOM CABINETRY INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- EZ SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EPHRATA IGA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BALMER BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARTIN PRETZELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HM STAUFFER & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHAFFERS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Akron'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 Akron.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Akron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Akron
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Akron, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Akron — CAFO (31 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (126 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Akron
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 Akron average
Your land is one point inside Akron
Everything above resolves to Akron as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 785 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 Akron Average
Akron Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Akron
- ●One soil character for all of Akron
- ●Frost dates read at Akron's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Akron's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Akron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Akron, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Akron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Akron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Akron average
How we know this about Akron
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 Akron’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 Akron
When does frost risk typically end in Akron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Akron typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Akron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Akron typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Akron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Akron sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 25, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Akron?
The federal record around Akron is a meaningful one — 1,945 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (974), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Akron?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Akron's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Akron'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 Akron’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Akron's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 785 acres it covers and 1,945 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Akron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Akron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 8 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,945 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Akron, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Akron's boundary and the 785 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Akron's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Akronlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Akron's 785 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Akron's 785 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Akron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 785 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Akron-wide figureread your own land →