Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bloomsburg, 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 Bloomsburg 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 Bloomsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bloomsburg — the short answer
Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Bloomsburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bloomsburg's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bloomsburg
Each reading below is measured for Bloomsburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBloomsburg runs about 203 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
MeasuredBloomsburg 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 Bloomsburg is in
Bloomsburg sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bloomsburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Bloomsburg
Every plant below cleared Bloomsburg's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bloomsburg?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Bloomsburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Bloomsburg, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bloomsburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bloomsburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLOOMSBURG CTL OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- HANSON BLOOMSBURG S & GUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- COLUMBIA CNTY IND PARK 1Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- AT&T MAINVILLE PA FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- DAVID E WESTOVER EXCAVATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HUSKY KORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- INDEPENDENCE FORD INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- BASTIAN TIRE & AUTO CTRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BLOOMSBURG MEMORIAL ELEMENTARYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SHOEMAKERS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1600 ft
- FH 38280Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PA STATE SYS OF HIGHER ED/BLOOMSBURG UNIV PABrownfields · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bloomsburg'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 Bloomsburg.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bloomsburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bloomsburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bloomsburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bloomsburg — CAFO (7 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Bloomsburg
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 Bloomsburg average
Your land is one point inside Bloomsburg
Everything above resolves to Bloomsburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Bloomsburg Average
Bloomsburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Bloomsburg
- ●One soil character for all of Bloomsburg
- ●Frost dates read at Bloomsburg's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bloomsburg's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bloomsburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bloomsburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bloomsburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bloomsburg average
How we know this about Bloomsburg
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 Bloomsburg’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 Bloomsburg
When does frost risk typically end in Bloomsburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomsburg typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Bloomsburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bloomsburg typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bloomsburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bloomsburg sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 15, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bloomsburg?
The federal record around Bloomsburg is a meaningful one — 357 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (212), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bloomsburg?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bloomsburg's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bloomsburg'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 Bloomsburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bloomsburg's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,783 acres it covers and 357 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bloomsburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bloomsburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 29 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 357 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bloomsburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bloomsburg's boundary and the 2,783 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bloomsburg's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bloomsburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bloomsburg's 2,783 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bloomsburg's 2,783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bloomsburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,783 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Bloomsburg-wide figureread your own land →
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