Black Lick, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Black Lick, 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 Black Lick 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 Black Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Black Lick — the short answer
Black Lick, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Black Lick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Black Lick's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Black Lick
Each reading below is measured for Black Lick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlack Lick runs about 198 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
MeasuredBlack Lick 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 Black Lick is in
Black Lick sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Black Lick's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Indiana County is mostly Western Allegheny Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Black Lick
Every plant below cleared Black Lick's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Black Lick?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Black Lick
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Black Lick, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Black Lick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Black Lick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IN 205Nitrate · 2500 ft
- DLUBAK CORPToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- SHEETZ 172Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SMITH TRUCK PARTS & REPAIRBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- D & D TRUCK LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JEFFS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- IN 910Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- PGT TRUCKING BLAIRSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BUD DAVIS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- AEP 22WUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BLUE RIDGE RESTAURANT TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PENN VIEW EQUIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Black Lick'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 Black Lick.
Total Sites
456
within ~10 miles of Black Lick
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Black Lick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Black Lick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Black Lick, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 188 sites within ~10 miles of Black Lick. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Black Lick
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 Black Lick average
Your land is one point inside Black Lick
Everything above resolves to Black Lick as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Black Lick Average
Black Lick Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Black Lick
- ●One soil character for all of Black Lick
- ●Frost dates read at Black Lick's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black Lick's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Black Lick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Black Lick, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black Lick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Black Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black Lick average
How we know this about Black Lick
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 Black Lick’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 Black Lick
When does frost risk typically end in Black Lick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Black Lick typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Black Lick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Black Lick typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Black Lick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Black Lick sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 17, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Black Lick?
The federal record around Black Lick is a meaningful one — 456 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (188), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles 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 Black Lick?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Black Lick's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Black Lick'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 Black Lick’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Black Lick's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,597 acres it covers and 456 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Black Lick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Black Lick's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 31 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 456 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Black Lick, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Black Lick's boundary and the 1,597 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Black Lick sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Black Licklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Black Lick's 1,597 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Indiana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Indiana 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 Indiana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Black Lick's 1,597 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Black Lick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,597 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Black Lick-wide figureread your own land →
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