Catawissa, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Catawissa, 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 Catawissa 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 Catawissa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Catawissa — the short answer
Catawissa, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 328 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 328 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 Catawissa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Catawissa's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Catawissa
Each reading below is measured for Catawissa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCatawissa runs about 201 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
MeasuredCatawissa 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 Catawissa is in
Catawissa sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Catawissa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Catawissa
Every plant below cleared Catawissa's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Catawissa?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 27 — 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 Catawissa
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Catawissa, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Catawissa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Catawissa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CATAWISSA FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CREASY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SIDHI VINAYAK IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- VERIZON CATAWISSAUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BUCHERS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 850 ft
- MAXI MFGUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- JOHNS CYCLE BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CATAWISSA STPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CATAWISSA CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ELIZABETH LONGENBERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CHARLES NAPIERSKIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FETTERMANS MR SOFTEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Catawissa'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 Catawissa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Catawissa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Catawissa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Catawissa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Catawissa — CAFO (8 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Catawissa
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 Catawissa average
Your land is one point inside Catawissa
Everything above resolves to Catawissa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 328 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 Catawissa Average
Catawissa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Catawissa
- ●One soil character for all of Catawissa
- ●Frost dates read at Catawissa's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Catawissa's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Catawissa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Catawissa, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Catawissa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Catawissa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Catawissa average
How we know this about Catawissa
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 Catawissa’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 Catawissa
When does frost risk typically end in Catawissa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Catawissa 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 Catawissa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Catawissa typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Catawissa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Catawissa sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 13, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Catawissa?
The federal record around Catawissa is a meaningful one — 356 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), 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 Catawissa?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Catawissa's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Catawissa'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 Catawissa’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Catawissa's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 328 acres it covers and 356 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Catawissa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Catawissa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 27 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 356 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Catawissa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Catawissa's boundary and the 328 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Catawissa's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Catawissalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Catawissa's 328 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 Catawissa's 328 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Catawissa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 328 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 Catawissa-wide figureread your own land →
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