Altoona, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Altoona, 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 Altoona 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 Altoona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Altoona — the short answer
Altoona, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Altoona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Altoona's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Altoona
Each reading below is measured for Altoona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAltoona runs about 201 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
MeasuredAltoona 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 Altoona is in
Altoona sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Altoona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blair County.
What Grows in Altoona
Every plant below cleared Altoona's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Altoona?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Altoona
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Altoona, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Altoona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Altoona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHEETZ 34Underground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- SHEETZ STORE NO 34Brownfields · 50 ft
- SUNOCO SVC STABrownfields · 75 ft
- SWARAJ SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- BLAIR TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- NAPA AUTO PARTS 032Brownfields · 700 ft
- DAN CARACCIOLO AND SON MOUNTAIN CITY JUNKToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- PACE ALTOONA PABrownfields · 1100 ft
- ALTOONA AREA VOC TECH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ALTOONA VOC TECH SCHBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CTL POWER PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AMOCO OIL COBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Altoona'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 Altoona.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Altoona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Altoona
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 Altoona
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 Altoona average
Your land is one point inside Altoona
Everything above resolves to Altoona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 city 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 Altoona Average
Altoona Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Altoona
- ●One soil character for all of Altoona
- ●Frost dates read at Altoona's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Altoona's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Altoona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Altoona, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Altoona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Altoona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Altoona average
How we know this about Altoona
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Altoona’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Altoona
When does frost risk typically end in Altoona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Altoona typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Altoona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Altoona 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Altoona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Altoona sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 16, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Altoona?
The federal record around Altoona is a meaningful one — 531 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (291), 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 Altoona?
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 Altoona's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Altoona'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 Altoona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Altoona's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,266 acres it covers and 531 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Altoona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Altoona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 30 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 531 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Altoona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Altoona's boundary and the 6,266 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Altoona's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Altoonalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Altoona's 6,266 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blair 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 Blair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Altoona's 6,266 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Altoona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,266 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 Altoona-wide figureread your own land →
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