Coaldale, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Coaldale, 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 Coaldale 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 Coaldale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coaldale — the short answer
Coaldale, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Coaldale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coaldale's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coaldale
Each reading below is measured for Coaldale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoaldale runs about 187 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
MeasuredCoaldale 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 Coaldale is in
Coaldale sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coaldale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Coaldale
Every plant below cleared Coaldale's own zone 6b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coaldale?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Coaldale
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Coaldale, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Coaldale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coaldale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MINERS MEM MED CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ST LUKES HOSP MINERS CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ST LUKES UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL MINERSBrownfields · 750 ft
- PLT 12 FINE COALUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ERBES TIRE & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PETER J RADOCHA & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PETER J RADOCHAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- J SURMA EXCAVATING & EQUIP REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PPL PANTHER VALLEY CREW QUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FOLWEILERS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SPRINGDALEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PETER J RADOCHA & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coaldale'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 Coaldale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coaldale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coaldale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coaldale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Coaldale — PFAS (6 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Coaldale
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 Coaldale average
Your land is one point inside Coaldale
Everything above resolves to Coaldale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Coaldale Average
Coaldale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Coaldale
- ●One soil character for all of Coaldale
- ●Frost dates read at Coaldale's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coaldale's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coaldale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coaldale, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coaldale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coaldale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coaldale average
How we know this about Coaldale
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 Coaldale’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 Coaldale
When does frost risk typically end in Coaldale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coaldale typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Coaldale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coaldale typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coaldale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coaldale sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 8, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coaldale?
The federal record around Coaldale runs heavier than most — 371 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Coaldale?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coaldale's scale — its 6b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coaldale'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 Coaldale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Coaldale's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,392 acres it covers and 371 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coaldale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coaldale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 22 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 371 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coaldale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coaldale's boundary and the 1,392 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coaldale's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Coaldalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coaldale's 1,392 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coaldale's 1,392 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coaldale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,392 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Coaldale-wide figureread your own land →
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