McKean County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
McKean County lies within the Northern Tier (north-central Pennsylvania high plateau) and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
McKean County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across McKean 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 McKean County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McKean County — the short answer
McKean County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 627K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 627K 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 5b is McKean County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McKean County's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in McKean County
Across a year, McKean County accumulates about 1,722 growing degree days above 50°F, about 825 fewer than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 1 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 McKean County
Across McKean County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Buchanan, Cookport, and Hartleton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.1–5.3, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
22%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across McKean County
The USDA soil survey maps 65% of McKean County as moderately well drained — but another 34% drains differently: 30% well drained, 4% poorly drained.
Buchanan is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Cookport (18%) and Hartleton (17%).
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 McKean County
Each reading below is measured for McKean 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 McKean County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group A — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across McKean County runs about pH 4.1–5.3, 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
MeasuredMcKean County runs about 164 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
MeasuredMcKean County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 McKean County is in
McKean County sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in McKean County
We scored all 1,086 plants against McKean County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 164-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 McKean County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 McKean County
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from McKean County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly43 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in McKean County
USGS estimates 1,225 lb of Glyphosate on McKean County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (265 lb) and 2,4-d (250 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 McKean County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across McKean County — 384 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 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 McKean 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 McKean County
Closest first, across McKean County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CYCLONE SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CYCLONE CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FORMER CULBERTSON PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- MCKEAN CNTY MAINT BLDG 0250Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- THREEMILE RUN TAR SITESuperfund · 2.9 mi
- BAKERS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BRADFORD REG AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- NATL CAR RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- TSA BRADFORD REGIONAL AIRPORTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- COLEVILLE STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- KINZUA BRIDGE STATE PARKBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- SMETHPORT CCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McKean 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 McKean County.
Sources Checked
across McKean County
Severity Distribution
across McKean County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McKean County, two things run higher than the national average across McKean County — Superfund (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (24 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in McKean 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 McKean County average
Your land is one point inside McKean County
Everything above resolves to McKean County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 627K 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 McKean County Average
McKean County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across McKean County
- ●One soil character for all of McKean County
- ●Frost dates read at McKean County's scale: May 3 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McKean County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in McKean County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McKean County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McKean County averages can't show:
We read public map data around McKean County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McKean County average
How we know this about McKean 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 McKean County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about McKean County
When does frost risk typically end in McKean County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McKean County typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in McKean County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McKean County sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 30, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McKean County?
The federal record around McKean County is a meaningful one — 384 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (226), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 McKean County's scale — its 5b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McKean 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 McKean County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at McKean County's own scale — its own ~164-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 384 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McKean County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McKean County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in McKean CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 384 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- McKean County's boundary and the 627,004 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McKean County sitting wholly inside the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in McKean County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto McKean 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 McKean County — the ~164 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 McKean County's 627,004 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 384 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 McKean Countyread your own land →