Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cambridge Springs, 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 Cambridge Springs 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 Cambridge Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cambridge Springs — the short answer
Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 568 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 568 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 Cambridge Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cambridge Springs's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cambridge Springs
Each reading below is measured for Cambridge Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCambridge Springs runs about 196 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
MeasuredCambridge Springs 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 Cambridge Springs is in
Cambridge Springs sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cambridge Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Cambridge Springs
Every plant below cleared Cambridge Springs's own zone 6a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cambridge Springs?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Cambridge Springs
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Cambridge Springs, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cambridge Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cambridge Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MERIDIAN EXPLORATION CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BI LO BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- AG SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS TROLLEY STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BAUSCHS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DOREN CAMBRIDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LORD CORP. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- LORD CORP. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- HOOVERS TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HUMES AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1700 ft
- KWIK FILL M0173 174Brownfields · 1700 ft
- KWIK FILL M 173Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cambridge Springs'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 Cambridge Springs.
Total Sites
176
within ~10 miles of Cambridge Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cambridge Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cambridge Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cambridge Springs, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Cambridge Springs. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cambridge Springs
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 Cambridge Springs average
Your land is one point inside Cambridge Springs
Everything above resolves to Cambridge Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 568 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 Cambridge Springs Average
Cambridge Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cambridge Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Cambridge Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Cambridge Springs's scale: Apr 21 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cambridge Springs's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cambridge Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cambridge Springs, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cambridge Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cambridge Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cambridge Springs average
How we know this about Cambridge Springs
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 Cambridge Springs’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 Cambridge Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Cambridge Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cambridge Springs typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Cambridge Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cambridge Springs typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cambridge Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cambridge Springs sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 20, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cambridge Springs?
The federal record around Cambridge Springs is a meaningful one — 176 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), 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 Cambridge Springs?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cambridge Springs's scale — its 6a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cambridge Springs'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 Cambridge Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cambridge Springs's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 568 acres it covers and 176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cambridge Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cambridge Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Nov 3 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cambridge Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cambridge Springs's boundary and the 568 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cambridge Springs's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cambridge Springslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cambridge Springs's 568 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cambridge Springs's 568 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cambridge Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 568 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 Cambridge Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaCambridge Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides