Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Bechtelsville, 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 Bechtelsville 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 Bechtelsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bechtelsville — the short answer
Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 338 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 338 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 Bechtelsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bechtelsville's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bechtelsville
Each reading below is measured for Bechtelsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBechtelsville runs about 212 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
MeasuredBechtelsville 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 Bechtelsville is in
Bechtelsville sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Bechtelsville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Berks County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bechtelsville
Every plant below cleared Bechtelsville's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bechtelsville?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Bechtelsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Bechtelsville, first recorded 2014. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bechtelsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bechtelsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KWIK FILL S 103Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- RONALD H KEHLBrownfields · 950 ft
- GREATER AMER KNITTING MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BECHTELSVILLE AGWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CAMPBELL MANUFACTURING LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- CAMPBELL MANUFACTURING LLCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- INDIAN RESERVATION CYCLE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- M & D AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- EXCEL COLLISION REPAIR & PAINTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CHRISTEL CAR CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 40115Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARTIN STONE QUARRIESBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bechtelsville'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 Bechtelsville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bechtelsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bechtelsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bechtelsville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Bechtelsville. 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 Bechtelsville
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 Bechtelsville average
Your land is one point inside Bechtelsville
Everything above resolves to Bechtelsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 338 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 Bechtelsville Average
Bechtelsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Bechtelsville
- ●One soil character for all of Bechtelsville
- ●Frost dates read at Bechtelsville's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bechtelsville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bechtelsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bechtelsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bechtelsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bechtelsville average
How we know this about Bechtelsville
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 Bechtelsville’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 Bechtelsville
When does frost risk typically end in Bechtelsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bechtelsville typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Bechtelsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bechtelsville typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bechtelsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bechtelsville sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 20, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bechtelsville?
The federal record around Bechtelsville runs heavier than most — 903 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (438), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bechtelsville?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bechtelsville's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bechtelsville'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 Bechtelsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bechtelsville's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 338 acres it covers and 903 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bechtelsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bechtelsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 3 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 903 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bechtelsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bechtelsville's boundary and the 338 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bechtelsville sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bechtelsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bechtelsville's 338 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berks 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 Berks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bechtelsville's 338 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bechtelsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 338 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 Bechtelsville-wide figureread your own land →
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