Connellsville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Connellsville, 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 Connellsville 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 Connellsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Connellsville — the short answer
Connellsville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Connellsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Connellsville's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Connellsville
Each reading below is measured for Connellsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConnellsville runs about 198 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
MeasuredConnellsville 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 Connellsville is in
Connellsville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Connellsville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Connellsville
Every plant below cleared Connellsville's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Connellsville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Connellsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Connellsville, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Connellsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Connellsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- FA 24Nitrate · 250 ft
- WENDELL H STONE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CSXT MAINLINE BROAD FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- NELSONS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PAARNG OMS 11Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- VALLEY SVC DIESEL STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- RICHARD CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CONNELLSVILLE QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- 1ST PLATOON TRUCK COUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CITY AUTO CTR INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SOISSONS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Connellsville'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 Connellsville.
Total Sites
414
within ~10 miles of Connellsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Connellsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Connellsville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Connellsville
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 Connellsville average
Your land is one point inside Connellsville
Everything above resolves to Connellsville 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 city 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 Connellsville Average
Connellsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Connellsville
- ●One soil character for all of Connellsville
- ●Frost dates read at Connellsville's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Connellsville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Connellsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Connellsville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Connellsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Connellsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Connellsville average
How we know this about Connellsville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Connellsville’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Connellsville
When does frost risk typically end in Connellsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Connellsville typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Connellsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Connellsville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Connellsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Connellsville sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 17, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Connellsville?
The federal record around Connellsville is a meaningful one — 414 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (230), 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 Connellsville?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Connellsville's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Connellsville'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 Connellsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Connellsville's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,396 acres it covers and 414 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Connellsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Connellsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 31 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 414 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Connellsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Connellsville's boundary and the 1,396 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Connellsville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Connellsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Connellsville's 1,396 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Connellsville's 1,396 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Connellsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,396 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 Connellsville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides