Arcadia University, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Arcadia University, 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 Arcadia University 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 Arcadia University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arcadia University — the short answer
Arcadia University, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 65 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 65 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 7b is Arcadia University's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arcadia University's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arcadia University
Each reading below is measured for Arcadia University itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArcadia University runs about 238 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
MeasuredArcadia University sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Arcadia University is in
Arcadia University sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arcadia University's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Arcadia University
Every plant below cleared Arcadia University's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arcadia University?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Arcadia University
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Arcadia University, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Arcadia University
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arcadia University. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARCADIA UNIVBrownfields · 800 ft
- ARCADIA UNIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BEAVER MANORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FORMER T FRIEZE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ROYAL AVEBrownfields · 2400 ft
- GLENSIDE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MELODY CLNR/ABINGTONBrownfields · 2600 ft
- GLENSIDE POST OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HESS STA 38277Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- SPEEDWAY 6725Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHELTENHAM HIGH SCHBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PEP BOYS STORE NO 1650Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arcadia University'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 Arcadia University.
Total Sites
5,197
within ~10 miles of Arcadia University
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
66 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arcadia University
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arcadia University
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arcadia University, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Arcadia University. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Arcadia University
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 Arcadia University average
Your land is one point inside Arcadia University
Everything above resolves to Arcadia University as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 65 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 Arcadia University Average
Arcadia University Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Arcadia University
- ●One soil character for all of Arcadia University
- ●Frost dates read at Arcadia University's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arcadia University's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arcadia University
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arcadia University, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arcadia University averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arcadia University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arcadia University average
How we know this about Arcadia University
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 Arcadia University’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 Arcadia University
When does frost risk typically end in Arcadia University?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia University typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Arcadia University?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arcadia University typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arcadia University?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arcadia University sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 4, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arcadia University?
The federal record around Arcadia University runs heavier than most — 5,197 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,596), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Arcadia University?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arcadia University's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arcadia University'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 Arcadia University’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Arcadia University's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 65 acres it covers and 5,197 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arcadia University's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arcadia University's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 18 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,197 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arcadia University, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arcadia University's boundary and the 65 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arcadia University's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Arcadia Universitylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arcadia University's 65 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arcadia University's 65 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arcadia University you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 65 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Arcadia University-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaArcadia University sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides