Alfarata, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alfarata, 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 Alfarata 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 Alfarata — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alfarata — the short answer
Alfarata, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 358 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 358 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 Alfarata's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alfarata's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alfarata
Each reading below is measured for Alfarata itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlfarata runs about 204 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
MeasuredAlfarata 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 Alfarata is in
Alfarata sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alfarata's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mifflin County.
What Grows in Alfarata
Every plant below cleared Alfarata's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alfarata?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Alfarata
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Alfarata, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alfarata
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alfarata. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MF 261Nitrate · 2100 ft
- MF 254Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- JOE KRENTZMAN & SON SCRAP YARDToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- PARSON'S AUTO SALESBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- JACKS CREEK/SITKIN SMELTING & REFINING, INC.Superfund · 1.7 mi
- MF 251Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- JU 371Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MF 106Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- LAZY HOG FARMCAFO · 2.0 mi
- MF 214Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- SPIGELMYERS GREENHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MF 262Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alfarata'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 Alfarata.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alfarata
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alfarata
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alfarata, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Alfarata. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Alfarata
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 Alfarata average
Your land is one point inside Alfarata
Everything above resolves to Alfarata as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 358 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 Alfarata Average
Alfarata Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Alfarata
- ●One soil character for all of Alfarata
- ●Frost dates read at Alfarata's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alfarata's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alfarata
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alfarata, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alfarata averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alfarata — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alfarata average
How we know this about Alfarata
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 Alfarata’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 Alfarata
When does frost risk typically end in Alfarata?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alfarata typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Alfarata?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alfarata typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alfarata?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alfarata sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 17, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alfarata?
The federal record around Alfarata is a meaningful one — 341 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (188), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Alfarata?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alfarata's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alfarata'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 Alfarata’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Alfarata's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 358 acres it covers and 341 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alfarata's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alfarata's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 31 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 341 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alfarata, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alfarata's boundary and the 358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alfarata's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Alfaratalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alfarata's 358 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mifflin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mifflin 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 Mifflin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alfarata's 358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alfarata you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Alfarata-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides