Huntingdon County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Huntingdon 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
Huntingdon County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Huntingdon County — the short answer
Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 560K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 560K 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 Huntingdon County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Huntingdon County's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Huntingdon County
Across a year, Huntingdon County accumulates about 2,702 growing degree days above 50°F, about 155 more than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 42 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 Huntingdon County
Across Huntingdon County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Berks, Hazleton, and Weikert are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Huntingdon County
The USDA soil survey maps 73% of Huntingdon County as well drained — but another 24% drains differently: 13% moderately well drained, 6% poorly drained.
Berks is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Hazleton (12%) and Weikert (9%).
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 Huntingdon County
Each reading below is measured for Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Huntingdon County runs about pH 4.6–5.5, 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
MeasuredHuntingdon County runs about 214 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
MeasuredHuntingdon 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 Huntingdon County is in
Huntingdon County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Ridge and Valley (85%) and Central Appalachians (15%). 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 Huntingdon County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Huntingdon County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 214-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 Huntingdon County?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Huntingdon County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Huntingdon County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly821 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Huntingdon County
USGS estimates 54,659 lb of Glyphosate on Huntingdon County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (19,067 lb) and Atrazine (19,010 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 Huntingdon County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Huntingdon County — 359 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County
Closest first, across Huntingdon County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HU 54Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- US SILICA/MAPLETON DEPOT PLTBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- KWIK FILL S0063 250Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- ALLEGHENY ELECTRIC COOP INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- WABASH RRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MAPLETON FARM & GARDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- U. S. Rt. 22 Roadcut ProspectMining · 2.6 mi
- Quarry 4134Mining · 2.7 mi
- Trench 4133Mining · 2.7 mi
- Motel 22 Drill HoleMining · 2.7 mi
- MARTIN GEN STORE 227Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Conrail Outcrop OccurrenceMining · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County.
Total Sites
359
across Huntingdon County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Huntingdon County
Severity Distribution
across Huntingdon County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Huntingdon County, two things run higher than the national average across Huntingdon County — CAFO (12 sites) and Nitrate (116 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County average
Your land is one point inside Huntingdon County
Everything above resolves to Huntingdon County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 560K 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 Huntingdon County Average
Huntingdon County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Huntingdon County
- ●One soil character for all of Huntingdon County
- ●Frost dates read at Huntingdon County's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Huntingdon County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Huntingdon County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Huntingdon County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Huntingdon County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Huntingdon County average
How we know this about Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Huntingdon County
When does frost risk typically end in Huntingdon County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Huntingdon County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
How long is the growing season in Huntingdon County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Huntingdon County sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 23, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Huntingdon County?
The federal record around Huntingdon County is a meaningful one — 359 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Huntingdon County's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Huntingdon County's own scale — its own ~214-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 359 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Huntingdon County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Huntingdon County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Huntingdon CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 359 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Huntingdon County's boundary and the 559,738 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Huntingdon County spans, Ridge and Valley the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Huntingdon County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County — the ~214 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 Huntingdon County's 559,738 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 359 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 Huntingdon Countyread your own land →