Canton, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Canton, 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 Canton 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 Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Canton — the short answer
Canton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 737 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 737 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 Canton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Canton's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Canton
Each reading below is measured for Canton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCanton runs about 163 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
MeasuredCanton 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 Canton is in
Canton sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Canton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bradford County.
What Grows in Canton
Every plant below cleared Canton's own zone 6a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Canton?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Canton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Canton, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Canton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Canton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALTER GARDNER RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- K & K AUTO ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CANTON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CANTON BODY SHOPBrownfields · 450 ft
- RAUSHERS SVC CTRBrownfields · 500 ft
- DANDY MINI MART 12Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ACORN MKT 23Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HESS FARM EQUIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PHILIP DOUDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LEROY GEN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DECRISTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SULLIVAN STREET AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Canton'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 Canton.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Canton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Canton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Canton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Canton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Canton — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (50 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Canton
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 Canton average
Your land is one point inside Canton
Everything above resolves to Canton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 737 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 Canton Average
Canton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Canton
- ●One soil character for all of Canton
- ●Frost dates read at Canton's scale: May 3 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Canton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Canton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Canton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Canton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Canton average
How we know this about Canton
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 Canton’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 Canton
When does frost risk typically end in Canton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Canton typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Canton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Canton typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Canton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Canton sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 29, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Canton?
The federal record around Canton shows 114 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Canton?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Canton's scale — its 6a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Canton'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 Canton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Canton's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 737 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Canton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Canton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 13 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Canton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Canton's boundary and the 737 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Canton's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cantonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Canton's 737 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bradford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bradford 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 Bradford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Canton's 737 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Canton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 737 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 Canton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaCanton sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides