Berrysburg, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Berrysburg, 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 Berrysburg 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 Berrysburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berrysburg — the short answer
Berrysburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 388 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 388 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 Berrysburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berrysburg's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berrysburg
Each reading below is measured for Berrysburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBerrysburg runs about 210 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
MeasuredBerrysburg 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 Berrysburg is in
Berrysburg sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Berrysburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dauphin County.
What Grows in Berrysburg
Every plant below cleared Berrysburg's own zone 6b and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berrysburg?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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 Berrysburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Berrysburg, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Berrysburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berrysburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DA 663Nitrate · 300 ft
- BERRYS MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ELIZABETHVILLE DISPOSAL COBrownfields · 600 ft
- BERRYSBURG COMM BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MALTAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BERRYSBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MG HENNINGER & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DA 835Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- DA 660Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- DA 661Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- DA 658Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- KOLVA SAWMILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berrysburg'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 Berrysburg.
Total Sites
261
within ~10 miles of Berrysburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berrysburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berrysburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berrysburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Berrysburg — CAFO (14 sites) and Nitrate (72 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Berrysburg
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 Berrysburg average
Your land is one point inside Berrysburg
Everything above resolves to Berrysburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 388 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 Berrysburg Average
Berrysburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Berrysburg
- ●One soil character for all of Berrysburg
- ●Frost dates read at Berrysburg's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berrysburg's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berrysburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berrysburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berrysburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berrysburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berrysburg average
How we know this about Berrysburg
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 Berrysburg’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 Berrysburg
When does frost risk typically end in Berrysburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berrysburg typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Berrysburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berrysburg 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 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berrysburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berrysburg sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 19, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berrysburg?
The federal record around Berrysburg is a meaningful one — 261 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Nitrate 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 Berrysburg?
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 Berrysburg's scale — its 6b band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berrysburg'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 Berrysburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Berrysburg's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 388 acres it covers and 261 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berrysburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berrysburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 2 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 261 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berrysburg, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berrysburg's boundary and the 388 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Berrysburg's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Berrysburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berrysburg's 388 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dauphin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dauphin 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 Dauphin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berrysburg's 388 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berrysburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 388 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Berrysburg-wide figureread your own land →
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