Bessemer, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bessemer, 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 Bessemer 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 Bessemer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bessemer — the short answer
Bessemer, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Bessemer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bessemer's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bessemer
Each reading below is measured for Bessemer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBessemer runs about 190 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBessemer sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bessemer is in
Bessemer sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bessemer's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lawrence County.
What Grows in Bessemer
Every plant below cleared Bessemer's own zone 6a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bessemer?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Bessemer
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Bessemer, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bessemer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bessemer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARTIN TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- RONS AUTO SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BESSEMER SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LEHIGH HANSON ECCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ESSROC CEMENT CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- HERMANS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MARTIN TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MCQUISTON COAL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JYLLS CORNER MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- EMAI CORPBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MOHAWK SCHOOL ROAD METERING STATIONBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- MOHAWK AREA SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bessemer'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 Bessemer.
Total Sites
685
within ~10 miles of Bessemer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bessemer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bessemer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bessemer, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Bessemer. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Bessemer
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 Bessemer average
Your land is one point inside Bessemer
Everything above resolves to Bessemer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bessemer Average
Bessemer Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bessemer
- ●One soil character for all of Bessemer
- ●Frost dates read at Bessemer's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bessemer's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bessemer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bessemer, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bessemer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bessemer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bessemer average
How we know this about Bessemer
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 Bessemer’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 Bessemer
When does frost risk typically end in Bessemer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bessemer typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Bessemer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bessemer typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bessemer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bessemer sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 13, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bessemer?
The federal record around Bessemer is a meaningful one — 685 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (345), the nearest Brownfields 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 Bessemer?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bessemer's scale — its 6a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bessemer'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 Bessemer’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bessemer's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,059 acres it covers and 685 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bessemer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bessemer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 27 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 685 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bessemer, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bessemer's boundary and the 1,059 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bessemer's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bessemerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bessemer's 1,059 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lawrence 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 Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bessemer's 1,059 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bessemer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,059 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bessemer-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaBessemer sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides