Apollo, Pennsylvania, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Apollo, 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 Apollo 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 Apollo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Apollo — the short answer
Apollo, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 195 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 195 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 Apollo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apollo's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apollo
Each reading below is measured for Apollo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApollo runs about 203 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
MeasuredApollo 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 Apollo is in
Apollo sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Apollo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Armstrong County.
What Grows in Apollo
Every plant below cleared Apollo's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apollo?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Apollo
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Apollo, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Apollo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apollo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN & HOWARD SHAEFFER AUTO SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- STEELE & STEELE SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BABCOCK & WILCOX APOLLO MFGBrownfields · 800 ft
- BARON CREST ENERGY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BABCOCK & WILCOX COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- AJ TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PA DOT APOLLO BRIDGE PROJUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LUXEMBURG MANORBrownfields · 2300 ft
- RAGO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- UPS NEW KENSINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JIM ERB AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CHUCKS STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apollo'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 Apollo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Apollo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apollo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Apollo, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Apollo. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Apollo
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 Apollo average
Your land is one point inside Apollo
Everything above resolves to Apollo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 195 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 Apollo Average
Apollo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Apollo
- ●One soil character for all of Apollo
- ●Frost dates read at Apollo's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apollo's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apollo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apollo, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apollo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apollo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apollo average
How we know this about Apollo
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 Apollo’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 Apollo
When does frost risk typically end in Apollo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apollo typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Apollo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apollo typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Apollo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apollo sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 19, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apollo?
The federal record around Apollo is a meaningful one — 407 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (209), 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 Apollo?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Apollo's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apollo'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 Apollo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Apollo's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 195 acres it covers and 407 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apollo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apollo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 2 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 407 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apollo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apollo's boundary and the 195 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Apollo's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Apollolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Apollo's 195 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Armstrong County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Armstrong 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 Armstrong County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apollo's 195 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apollo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 195 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 Apollo-wide figureread your own land →
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