Cochranton, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cochranton, 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 Cochranton 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 Cochranton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cochranton — the short answer
Cochranton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 769 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 769 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 Cochranton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cochranton's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cochranton
Each reading below is measured for Cochranton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCochranton runs about 195 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
MeasuredCochranton 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 Cochranton is in
Cochranton sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cochranton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Cochranton
Every plant below cleared Cochranton's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cochranton?
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 Nov 2 — 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 Cochranton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Cochranton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cochranton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cochranton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COCHRANTON CO OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- JBT PETRO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- COUNTRY FAIR 58Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MORCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- COINCO INC DBA MORCO/MORCOBrownfields · 800 ft
- COINCO INC DBA MORCO/MORCOToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- RUSCO INDUSTRIESSuperfund · 850 ft
- ALLTEL PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ALLEN SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- VITRO FLAT GLASS WORKS 8Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PATTERSON AUTO WRECKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WL DUNN CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cochranton'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 Cochranton.
Total Sites
205
within ~10 miles of Cochranton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cochranton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cochranton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cochranton, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Cochranton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cochranton
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 Cochranton average
Your land is one point inside Cochranton
Everything above resolves to Cochranton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 769 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 Cochranton Average
Cochranton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Cochranton
- ●One soil character for all of Cochranton
- ●Frost dates read at Cochranton's scale: Apr 21 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cochranton's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cochranton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cochranton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cochranton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cochranton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cochranton average
How we know this about Cochranton
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 Cochranton’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 Cochranton
When does frost risk typically end in Cochranton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cochranton 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 Cochranton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cochranton typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cochranton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cochranton sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 19, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cochranton?
The federal record around Cochranton is a meaningful one — 205 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), 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 Cochranton?
From about Oct 3 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 Nov 2 (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 Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cochranton's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cochranton'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 Cochranton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cochranton's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 769 acres it covers and 205 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cochranton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cochranton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Nov 2 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 205 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cochranton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cochranton's boundary and the 769 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cochranton's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cochrantonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cochranton's 769 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cochranton's 769 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cochranton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 769 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 Cochranton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaCochranton sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides