Castanea, 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, blackberry, california poppy, 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 Castanea, 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 Castanea 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 Castanea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Castanea — the short answer
Castanea, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 873 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 873 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 Castanea's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Castanea's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Castanea
Each reading below is measured for Castanea itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCastanea runs about 188 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
MeasuredCastanea 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 Castanea is in
Castanea sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Castanea's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clinton County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Castanea
Every plant below cleared Castanea's own zone 6b and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Castanea?
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 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 Oct 26 — 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 Castanea
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Castanea, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Castanea
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Castanea. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASTANEA TWP CLINTON CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CASTANEA ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WSP TECHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WSP LOCK HAVEN MANUFACTURING FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- WSP LOCK HAVEN MANUFACTURING FACILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CASTANEA STORAGE TANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MASORTI AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LOCK HAVEN SEW PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LOCK HAVEN STPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHREE DHAN LAXMIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BEST SELF STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CHAMPION DIESEL - N P C DIVISIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Castanea'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 Castanea.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Castanea
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Castanea
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Castanea, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Castanea — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (110 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 Castanea
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 Castanea average
Your land is one point inside Castanea
Everything above resolves to Castanea as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 873 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 Castanea Average
Castanea Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Castanea
- ●One soil character for all of Castanea
- ●Frost dates read at Castanea's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Castanea's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Castanea
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Castanea, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Castanea averages can't show:
We read public map data around Castanea — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Castanea average
How we know this about Castanea
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 Castanea’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 Castanea
When does frost risk typically end in Castanea?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Castanea 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 Castanea?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Castanea typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Castanea?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Castanea sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 12, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Castanea?
The federal record around Castanea is a meaningful one — 370 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (177), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Castanea?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Castanea's scale — its 6b band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Castanea'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 Castanea’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Castanea's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 873 acres it covers and 370 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Castanea's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Castanea's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 26 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 370 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Castanea, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Castanea's boundary and the 873 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Castanea sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Castanealydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Castanea's 873 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Castanea's 873 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Castanea you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 873 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Castanea-wide figureread your own land →
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