Butler County, in 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.
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.
Butler County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Butler County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Butler County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Butler County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Butler County — the short answer
Butler County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 505K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 505K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Butler County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Butler County's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Butler County
Across a year, Butler County accumulates about 2,406 growing degree days above 50°F, about 141 fewer than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 22 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Butler County
Across Butler County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Gilpin, Wharton, and Buchanan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.6, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Butler County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Butler County as well drained — but another 50% drains differently: 29% moderately well drained, 13% poorly drained.
Gilpin is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Wharton (9%) and Buchanan (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Butler County
Each reading below is measured for Butler County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Butler County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Butler County runs about pH 4.8–5.6, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredButler County runs about 181 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
MeasuredButler County 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 Butler County is in
Butler County sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Butler County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Butler County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 181-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile.
Is it too late to plant in Butler County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Butler County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Butler County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle8 documented records
- monarch butterfly285 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Butler County
USGS estimates 68,075 lb of Glyphosate on Butler County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (20,752 lb) and Atrazine (20,557 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Butler County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Butler County — 964 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Butler County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Butler County
Closest first, across Butler County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JIFFY MINI MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KWIK FILL S 13Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KWIK FILL S0013 278Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- PIERREL, JOE AUTOBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MCDONALD MOTORBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- RW MCDONALD & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GENOA HEALTHCARE USAPA10940Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- LOWES OF BUTLER PA #165Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- LOGAN VENDING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HEY ELECUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CENTER TWP PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SEARS REPAIR SVC 7283Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Butler County'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 Butler County.
Severity Distribution
across Butler County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Butler County, two things run higher than the national average across Butler County — PFAS (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (88 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Butler County
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 Butler County average
Your land is one point inside Butler County
Everything above resolves to Butler County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 505K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Butler County Average
Butler County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Butler County
- ●One soil character for all of Butler County
- ●Frost dates read at Butler County's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Butler County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Butler County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Butler County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Butler County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Butler County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Butler County average
How we know this about Butler County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Butler County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Butler County
When does frost risk typically end in Butler County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Butler County typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
How long is the growing season in Butler County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Butler County sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 10, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Butler County?
The federal record around Butler County is a meaningful one — 964 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (505), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Butler County's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Butler County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Pennsylvania's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Butler County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Butler County's own scale — its own ~181-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 964 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Butler County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Butler County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Butler CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 964 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Butler County's boundary and the 505,268 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Butler County sitting wholly inside the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Butler County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Butler County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Butler County — the ~181 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Butler County's 505,268 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 964 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Butler Countyread your own land →