Chest Springs, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chest 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 Chest 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 Chest Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chest Springs — the short answer
Chest Springs, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 124 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 124 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 Chest Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chest Springs's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chest Springs
Each reading below is measured for Chest Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChest Springs runs about 174 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
MeasuredChest 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 Chest Springs is in
Chest Springs sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chest Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Chest Springs
Every plant below cleared Chest Springs's own zone 6a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chest Springs?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Chest Springs
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Chest Springs, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chest Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chest Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CA 220Nitrate · 650 ft
- LITTLES EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RAYMOND LINKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CA 224Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- STORM FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CA 229Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- CA 213Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- PHILLIP BALZANO TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CAMBRIA HEIGHTS SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- BATHURST BODY SHOPBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- CA 100Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- AUTO WORKS UNLIMITEDBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chest 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 Chest Springs.
Total Sites
262
within ~10 miles of Chest Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chest Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chest Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chest Springs, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 164 sites within ~10 miles of Chest Springs. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Chest 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 Chest Springs average
Your land is one point inside Chest Springs
Everything above resolves to Chest Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 124 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 Chest Springs Average
Chest Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chest Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Chest Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Chest Springs's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chest Springs's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chest Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chest Springs, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chest Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chest Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chest Springs average
How we know this about Chest 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 Chest 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 Chest Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Chest Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chest Springs typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Chest Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chest Springs typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chest Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chest Springs sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 7, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chest Springs?
The federal record around Chest Springs is a meaningful one — 262 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Chest Springs?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chest Springs's scale — its 6a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chest 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 Chest Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chest Springs's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 124 acres it covers and 262 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chest Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chest Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 21 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 262 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chest Springs, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chest Springs's boundary and the 124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chest Springs's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Chest Springslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chest Springs's 124 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chest Springs's 124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chest 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 124 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Chest Springs-wide figureread your own land →