Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Blue Ridge Summit, 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 Blue Ridge Summit 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 Blue Ridge Summit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Blue Ridge Summit — the short answer
Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 470 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 470 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 Blue Ridge Summit's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Ridge Summit's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Ridge Summit
Each reading below is measured for Blue Ridge Summit itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlue Ridge Summit runs about 214 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
MeasuredBlue Ridge Summit 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 Blue Ridge Summit is in
Blue Ridge Summit sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blue Ridge Summit's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Franklin County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Blue Ridge Summit
Every plant below cleared Blue Ridge Summit's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue Ridge Summit?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Blue Ridge Summit
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Blue Ridge Summit, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Blue Ridge Summit
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Ridge Summit. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUE RIDGE SUMMIT CONTROL OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- RAVEN ROCK MOUNTAIN COMPLEXBrownfields · 550 ft
- SPECIALTY GRANULES INCBrownfields · 550 ft
- BOCK OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BLUE RIDGE SUMMIT PUMP STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- TRACEYS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BLUE RIDGE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- J BOB BENCHOFF ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GILLAND MEM WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Highfield ArmoryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CSX Transportation/Highfiled Rail Road CrossingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FR Ad 2Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Ridge Summit'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 Blue Ridge Summit.
Total Sites
404
within ~10 miles of Blue Ridge Summit
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Ridge Summit
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Ridge Summit
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Ridge Summit, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blue Ridge Summit — CAFO (6 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 Blue Ridge Summit
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 Blue Ridge Summit average
Your land is one point inside Blue Ridge Summit
Everything above resolves to Blue Ridge Summit as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 470 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 Blue Ridge Summit Average
Blue Ridge Summit Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Blue Ridge Summit
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Ridge Summit
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Ridge Summit's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Ridge Summit's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Ridge Summit
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Ridge Summit averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Ridge Summit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Ridge Summit average
How we know this about Blue Ridge Summit
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 Blue Ridge Summit’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 Blue Ridge Summit
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Ridge Summit?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Ridge Summit typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Blue Ridge Summit?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Ridge Summit typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blue Ridge Summit?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Ridge Summit sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 24, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blue Ridge Summit?
The federal record around Blue Ridge Summit is a meaningful one — 404 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (193), 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 Blue Ridge Summit?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blue Ridge Summit's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Ridge Summit'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 Blue Ridge Summit’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Blue Ridge Summit's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 470 acres it covers and 404 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Ridge Summit's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blue Ridge Summit's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 7 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 404 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Ridge Summit, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Ridge Summit's boundary and the 470 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Blue Ridge Summit sits in the Blue Ridge — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Blue Ridge Summitlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue Ridge Summit's 470 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Ridge Summit's 470 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Ridge Summit you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 470 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 Blue Ridge Summit-wide figureread your own land →