Centre County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Centre 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
Centre County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Centre 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 Centre County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Centre County — the short answer
Centre County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 709K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 709K 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 6b is Centre County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Centre County's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One county, several growing seasons
Centre County's hard-freeze record runs about 204 days between freezes — but that is the county-wide average, and several towns inside it carry a markedly different season in their own 30-year record: Clarence at about 172 days and Moshannon at 172 (against the county's ~204).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of these pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's ~204-day average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Only held-out towns carrying their own record are named — a town with no record of its own is absent rather than estimated, and a county with nothing qualifying shows no spread at all.
Heat in Centre County
Across a year, Centre County accumulates about 2,521 growing degree days above 50°F, about 26 fewer than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 32 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 Centre County
Across Centre County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Hazleton, Laidig, and Hagerstown are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Centre County
The USDA soil survey maps 71% of Centre County as well drained — but another 28% drains differently: 11% moderately well drained, 8% somewhat excessively drained.
Hazleton is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Laidig (10%) and Hagerstown (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 Centre County
Each reading below is measured for Centre 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 Centre County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Centre County runs about pH 4.6–5.3, 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
MeasuredCentre County runs about 204 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCentre County 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 Centre County is in
Centre County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Ridge and Valley (67%) and Central Appalachians (31%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Centre County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Centre County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 204-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 Centre County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Centre County
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Centre County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle209 documented records
- monarch butterfly1,127 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Centre County
USGS estimates 66,151 lb of Glyphosate on Centre County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (20,541 lb) and Atrazine (17,593 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 Centre County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Centre County — 738 documented sites across 8 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 Centre 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 Centre County
Closest first, across Centre County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CON LIME INC/BELLEFONTEBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- CON LIME INC/BELLEFONTEToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- CE 334Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- HOWARD GROVE PRINTINGBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- CE 258Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- BELLEFONTE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CE 683Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- SHEETZ STORE NO 181Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- SHEETZ 181Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- S & R REPAIRS TOWING & RECOVERY INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- DAVIDSON BROS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- UNIONVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Centre 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 Centre County.
Severity Distribution
across Centre County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Centre County, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites across Centre County. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Centre 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 Centre County average
Your land is one point inside Centre County
Everything above resolves to Centre County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 709K 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 Centre County Average
Centre County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Centre County
- ●One soil character for all of Centre County
- ●Frost dates read at Centre County's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Centre County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Centre County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Centre County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Centre County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Centre County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Centre County average
How we know this about Centre 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 Centre County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Centre County
When does frost risk typically end in Centre County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Centre County typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Centre County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Centre County sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 18, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Centre County?
The federal record around Centre County is a meaningful one — 738 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (341), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Centre County's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Centre 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 Centre County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Centre County's own scale — its own ~204-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 738 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Centre County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Centre County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Centre CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 738 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Centre County's boundary and the 708,645 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Centre County spans, Ridge and Valley the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Centre County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Centre 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 Centre County — the ~204 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 Centre County's 708,645 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 738 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 Centre Countyread your own land →